in 

in 




Glass J3J^L^SJ_ 

GIFT OF 

MRS. MAY WRIGHT SEWALL 

BY MRS. IDA HUSTED HARPER 

LITERARY EXECUTOR 









& /<y^ 



fi4-/f-/9'?- 





CHARLES H. FOSTER. 



THE SALEM SEER 



REMINISCENCES OF 



CHARLES H. FOSTER 



BY 

GEORGE C. BARTLETT 



NEW YORK 
LOVELL, GESTEFELD & COMPANY 

125 East 23D Street 






Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

GIFT OF 

MBS. MAY WRIGHT SEWALI. 

BY MBS. IDA HUSTED HARPER 

LITERARY EXECUTOR. 

1923 



PREFACE. 



Charles H. Foster was undoubtedly the most gift- 
ed and remarkable Spiritual Medium since Emanuel 
Swedenborg. Since the death of Mr. Foster, I have 
been frequently importuned by his friends, and by many 
prominent Spiritualists, to give my experiences while 
with him. Having been associated with him for a 
number of years, I had the privilege, and took ad- 
vantage of thoroughly testing his peculiar gifts. A 
prominent New York artist called on me recently, and 
said that he considered it my duty to give a thorough 
and complete account of the manifestations which I, 
together with friends and acquaintances, had witnessed 
through Mr. Foster's mediumship.- . ; - 

I have rather reluctantly consented, and give in this 
volume a plain statement of facts and descriptions of 
many seances held in different parts of the world, think- 
ing that this record may be of service to investigators 
of these phenomena, in the future. I sincerely hope 
that this book will stimulate practical and scientific 
men to such investigations. 

GEORCE C. BARTLETT. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



CHAPTER I. 

I met Charles H. Foster, the famous Spiritual Medium, 
in 1870, while spending an evening with a poetess, in 
New York City, who, w T hile suffering from extreme 
poverty when living in New Orleans, wrote the following 

verses : 

A nameless joy I do begin to find, 
In being as I am, thus lone and poor— 
I never felt so far from false mankind, 
I never drew so near my God before ! 

Oh, what to me are closed, unfriendly hands ? 
And what care I for cold, averted faces ! 
One sometimes gathers gold from miry sands, 
And violets oft bloom in darksome places. 

Mr. Foster appeared to be a jovial man of the world. 
The poetess was an enthusiastic spiritualist, and had 
spoken to me many times of " Charlie " Foster, as she 
called him, urging me to call on him and investigate 
spiritual phenomena, believing I would be more fully 
convinced (as she had been through Spiritualism) of an 
after life. No doubt, principally on the lady's account, 
Mr. Foster gave me a pressing invitation to call and 
see him as a friend, that he would not regard my visit 
professionally, but would gladly give me a seance free 



6 THE SALEM SEER. 

of charge. The following week, two gentlemen from 
the South — strangers to me — a New York friend, and 
myself, sat around his table, and for the first time in 
our experience investigated the supposed phenomena 
of spiritual manifestations, as given through a medium. 
The seance was a wonderful success. We were aston- 
ished and mystified beyond expression. Long after the 
others had left, Mr. Foster and I were talking over what 
seemed to me the most marvelous power I had ever 
witnessed. I said to him, "If this is true, you can en- 
tirely revolutionize the world, and — make a fortune. " He 
replied that he had made some money, but that it went 
as fast as it came ; that he was not a business man, did 
not understand how to advertise, and, as regarded rev- 
olutionizing the world, that I had yet to find out how 
unpopular mediums were, and what great opposition 
there was to Spiritualism. 

His price for a seance at that time was two dollars 
for each person. I advised him to advance the price 
at once to five dollars, and to sit for those who were 
poor and in trouble free. We gradually became friends, 
and I took quite an interest in his business, as he 
seemed willing to follow many of my suggestions. I 
proposed that he should advertise in the New York 
Herald. He agreed, and asked me to insert the ad- 
vertisement. I shall not soon forget my visit to the 
Herald office. I told the clerk under what head to 
place the advertisement. He seemed surprised, and 
said he could only insert it in what he probably would 
not call disreputable columns, but which seemed so to 
me. At the office door I met Mr. Stenhouse, who was 
one of the writers on the Herald at that time. I told 
him of my failure in attempting to insert an adver- 
tisement of Mr. Foster in a respectable part of the 



THE SALEM SEER. 7 

Herald. He said, ''Come with me, and I will intro- 
duce you to the editor, Mr. Donnelly. There must be 
some mistake. " Donnelly treated me with less courtesy 
than the clerk, and intimated that he was surprised that 
I should associate myself with Spiritualism, or spirit- 
ualistic mediums. We had an animated conversation, 
which called to my memory what Mr. Foster had pre- 
viously told me, that I did not realize the opposition to 
Spiritualism. I finally worded the advertisement so that 
it was accepted under " Amusements/' and from that 
day until Mr. Foster's death, he had more business than 
he could attend to. 

That evening I called on Mr. Foster, and told him 
my experience at the Herald office. I also told him 
that if I found his manifestations genuine, and if there 
were no fraud nor deception connected with them, that 
I was positive I could induce the entire press of the 
country to acknowledge the genuineness of his demon- 
stration of the phenomena. He thought it would be 
impossible. However, I went to work in earnest, call- 
ing usually upon the editors, offering them free seances, 
and allowing them to bring any one they chose with 
them. I was usually treated politely, but with sus- 
picion. At first they were inclined to sneer, but I had 
two strong points in my favor — I was honest and 
thoroughly in earnest, and in time was successful. In 
1873, I published quite a lengthy pamphlet, called, 
" Voices from the Press : All about Charles H. Foster, 
the Wonderful Medium. " It was sold by Brentano of 
Union Square. I quote a few lines from the introduc- 
tion : 

While making an extended tour through the principal cities of the 
United States with Mr. Foster, I made it my especial business to invite 
the editors of the principal newspapers and journals to investigate the 



8 THE SALEM SEER. 

phenomena,as they occurred in Mr. Foster's presence— having confidence 
in the fairness and justice of the editorial corps throughout the country, 
and believing that they would give truthful accounts of their experi- 
ences during the seances. 

In a short time my business made it necessary for 
me to visit eleven of our largest cities, and I proposed 
that Mr. Foster should go with me, and give seances 
in each city; that I would attend to the press, and do 
the advertising. We did not at that time make any 
effort with the press of New York, intending to do so 
later. Quite extensive articles, however, did appear 
in the New York Day-Book, New York Sunday Era, 
and especially in Brick Pomeroy's Democrat, from Mr. 
Pomeroy's pen. 

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, the first city which 
we visited, we called on Col. Forney, editor of the 
Philadelphia Press, who knew Foster, and was inter- 
ested in Spiritualism, Mrs. Forney being a thorough be- 
liever. We invited the Colonel to a seance at the Conti- 
nental Hotel, with the request that he should write for 
the Press what he there witnessed. He declined the 
invitation, and did not seem at all anxious to write an 
article on Spiritualism. He spoke as though he were 
deeply interested in the subject, but did not seem anx- 
ious that the public should know it. We then requested 
him to send a capable man from his paper. He finally 
consented, saying he would send the city editor, re- 
marking that he was a thorough skeptic, and a sarcastic 
writer, and he thought probably that he would do us 
more harm than good. We replied that he was just the 
kind of a man we wished him to send ; all we desired of 
him was to write exactly what transpired , and his im- 
pressions of the seance. An appointment was made 
for four o'clock the next day. The gentleman was 



THE SALEM SEER. g 

promptly on hand. Mr. Foster was in especially- 
good form, and gave a very remarkable seance. As 
usual, the next morning about nine o'clock, I asked 
at the news-stands for the principal Philadelphia papers, 
and found all of them with the exception of the Press. 
They said they were entirely sold out. I stepped across 
the street to the Girard House news-stand, and in- 
quired for the Press. "All sold." I asked if it were 
not unusual to be entirely sold out at that time. They 
replied that it was, but that the paper contained an 
article on Foster and Spiritualism, which had caused 
the unusual sale. Having inquired at several other 
news-stands with the same report, "All sold," I went 
to the office of the Press, and asked for the morning 
paper. The same reply came, "All sold." I finally 
succeeded in finding the writer of the article, and he 
procured a single copy for me. He remarked that they 
had received many orders which they could not supply. 
He called upon us in the evening, stating that there 
had been so many inquiries for the paper during the 
day, that they had concluded to republish the article 
in the weekly edition, and that if we wished a few 
extra copies we had better leave our order at once. 
The following is a part of his account of the seance 
which took place at the Continental Hotel, on the last 
day of March, 1873 : 

"Well, sir" (with the usual brusquerie of the journalist, who has 
no time to lose in conventionalities, for the paper must go to press at 
a certain time)— "well, sir, let me grasp the situation at once, and I 
confess candidly that I have not even a scintilla of doubt as to the 
falsity of Spiritualism and its varied forms and phases of 

HUMBUG AND JUGGLERY, 

contrived and carried out for the purpose of entrapping the simple- 
minded, credulous ones who are always willing to prove in their own 



IO THE SALEM SEER. 

persons the truth of ' the fools are not all dead yet. ' First, who are 
you, for I confess never to have heard of C. H. Foster? " 

The gentleman smiled meaningly in answer to the first part of 
the abrupt address of the journalist, and his smile passed into a 
quiet laugh, as if at the ignorance of the speaker as to who he, Mr. 
Foster, was. Indeed, his remark followed the laugh ; turning to 
his friend, he said, ''I have not heard such charming naivete for 
many a long day. It is quite refreshing to be spoken to in this way." 

Passing by the by -plays and spicy sparring which always arise be- 
tween a skeptic and a believer on almost any subject, the party, now 
augmented to the number of five (for a stranger and also a friend of 
the journalist had come up in the meantime), passed up stairs to 
" ROOM NO. no." 

The ordinary caparison of a room in a hotel, with the usual number 
of stands, and trunks, and chairs, etc., was noticed more for the 
absence of machinery, and juggler's boxes, and absurd tokens, and 
cards, and all the varied contrivances for imposing upon the credulity 
of people who usually sit at the feet of these mountebanks. We say 
these things were conspicuous by their absence ; still, the utter want 
of faith of the newspaper man was not shaken in the ability of the 
quiet, gentlemanly man to even guess, with any degree of accuracy, 
at commonplace occurrences of the past, or to foretell any more of the 
future than any man of ordinary judgment and a knowledge of men 
and things could do. 

As the journalist approaches his subject more closely, he feels that 
his usual impersonality must be sometimes sunk as 

HE RECITES HIS EXPERIENCES 

for that one-half hour in that medium's room. These experiences are 
not simply strange, unaccountable, mysterious, or any of the words 
which denote the idea of things unaccounted for by natural causes ; 
they are simply " awful." The writer feels as though he were drift- 
ing into sacrilege in his endeavor to give or to conceive of an idea of 
the power of this man. When the reporter saw this man look back 
over long years of time and long miles of space, and down deep into 
the moldering dust of long-forgotten graves, and drag up to the clear 
. light of the present noonday sun of Philadelphia thoughts from the in- 
most recesses of the heart of a woman who, in life, would hardly have 
confessed those thoughts to herself — when he saw the name of the 
woman and that of the man she loved (names which the inquirer had 
himself almort forgotten, time and circumstance having almost com- 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 1 

pletely blotted them out of memory) — when he saw those names 
written in 

PLAIN, DISTINCT CHARACTERS, ' 

in letters formed of the living blood at that moment coursing through 
the hand of Foster — he could not refrain from yielding to the impulse 
to cry out in ideal pain and awe-striking fear, stagger up from the 
table, and walk about the room till a modified calmness came to his 
excited feelings. And yet these were but the mere rudiments of the 
"art," if it may so be called ; but it may not be so called, even though 
the loss of a word leaves the sentence unfinished, for it was no "art" 
that enabled this man to read the events of the past and its dead, the 
present and its living ; to tell of deeds done years ago and forgotten 
by their actors, of thoughts conceived of at the passing moment and 
unshaped even in the brain of the thinker. It was no "art" that 
gave this man the power to look into the heart of a woman far away 
and tell her secret, which she had concealed religiously for years. It 
was no art ; it was — but the pen of the journalist refuses to write the 
impious thought, when he knows that he writes about the power of a 
mortal such as you and I and all of us are. 

Mr. Foster spoke truth when he made the remark, "Mr. , I 

will reveal to you things that you would not dare publish ; they are 
too sacred ; they touch family, social, and heart relations too nearly 
even to be mentioned by the faintest allusion." And the listener paid 
the penalty for his skepticism and scoffing even to the uttermost 
farthing, such a penalty the amount of which he dare not publish. 

IT IS "TOO SACRED." 

The writer then proceeded to give a lengthy ac- 
count of the seance. Also favorable accounts of 
seances were reported in the Philadelphia Bulletin and 
Philadelphia Evening Day, of April 4th, 1873. In fact, 
all the papers of Philadelphia gave extended reports, 
as later did many of the leading papers of the coun- 
try. The following extracts from them may be of 
interest. The first is by a celebrated artist of New York 
City. The caption of the article reads, " Is There an 
Invisible Human Intelligence ! " He proceeds : 



I 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

A gentleman accompanied the writer to have a sitting with Mr. 
Foster. He had twelve questions carefully inclosed in sealed envel- 
opes; they were all numbered. Mr. Foster took them in his hand, and 
passed them one by one over his brow, and gave correct or pertinent 
answers to each and every one. During the same sitting a word of 
three letters appeared upon the back of Mr. Foster's hand — the letters 
were formed by a red discoloration of the skin. The word was one 
which was agreed upon by the gentleman and his wife before her 
death, and it was to be used as a test by the one who should die first. 
The word had never been mentioned to any person. During this 
same sitting, Mr. Foster called the names of a number of deceased 
persons, who, before they died, were closely related to those who were 
present, and, in many cases, gave an accurate description of their per- 
sons. In addition to all this, he gave numerous tests and stated many 
circumstances which were unknown to any person present, but which 
were afterwards ascertained to be true. 

{Philadelphia Bulletin, April u, 1873.] 
Turning to me with a cheerful smile, the medium instructed me to 
write as many names as I chose of " spirit-friends." I wrote three, 
on separate papers, and folded them, and I believe they were not 
opened till 1 reached my own home. Immediately three distinct knocks 
on the table, and a rapid communication from each. Mr. Foster wrote 
the communications and the signatures corresponding with the names 
that I had written. Now I shall state a test that I did not acknowledge 
to him. One of the names had a middle letter that the deceased in 
his lifetime always ran into the last name, and persons on reading it 
for the first time always pronounced the two capitals in one sound. 
Mr. Foster wrote that signature the same way, though I had separated 
the letters in my paper, and he made the same mistake in pronouncing, 
so that for an instant my heart stood still. Another name I wrote in 
full, and he signed the communication with the abbreviated name I 
had always used in the lifetime of my friend. The mental questions 
were answered before I could raise my eyes; the written ones kept the 
medium busy for twelve minutes, when I was perfectly bewildered 
with the dispatches, and left the table as I would a telegraph battery 
after operating the President's Message for the Bulletin. Not one 
mistake, and all as clear as if we had been confidants for years, though 
I did not exchange fifty words with the medium, and walked off with 
my written questions folded as I dropped them from my fingers. 
I have no explanation to offer, no theory to suggest ; no advice, no 



THE SALEM SEER. 



l 5 



opposition for others to try it ; but I believe that what Joiinson said 
applies here : ' ' What no mortal can comprehend or explain, must be 
the power of something more than a mortal." 

[New York Day -Book, June 7, 187 j\] 
We came to this meeting determined to put Foster's remarkable 
powers to a severe trial, and prepared the test beforehand. An inti- 
mate friend of ours, every page of whose life, for at least thirty-five 
years, we were familiar with, consented to sit at our side at the table 
on this special occasion. At our request he had prepared a question 
to the "spirit," should he be favored with a visitation, and put the 
same in a sealed envelope prior to leaving his office on that day. The 
question was written thus — we give it verbatim, to show that Foster, 
even with his superhuman vision, if he depended on sight alone, could 
not have divined its full meaning : ' ' Can I get a communication with 
S. C, of S., who died at B. in 1849 ? " These words were written on 
a slip of paper and placed inside of an envelope, and the envelope 
sealed before our friend ever looked upon the seer. Our friend sought 
out the place of meeting, where we joined him to see the results of his 
test. Seated at the table, as we have already stated, sundry slips of 
paper were written upon, and the results were astonishing. Finally, 
C. drew out his envelope, and said to the seer: "Within is a com- 
munication, written before I came here. Shall I offer it?" "Cer- 
tainly," said Foster, and it was laid with the rest before him. Foster 
took the envelope up, touched it to his forehead, and turning to C. 
said : "I am impressed by several spirits anxious to communicate 
with you. There are two or three female spirits at the back of your 
chair bending over you. One is — wait a moment — her name is 

A y B 1 " (Foster gave the name in full of a lady friend of C. 

who died in 1853), "and the other is — is — why — your wife! How 
young she looks ! She died — long — long ago. Let me see ; she will 
write it on my hand, and I will tell you the year — 1849 — yes, 1849 — 
was the year. She says to you " — here a communication followed, in 
precisely the style of phraseology Mrs. C. used with her familiars ; so 
very like that it was most startling. Now, we ask, what was there in 
the communication within the envelope to denote that "S. C." was 
the "wife " of the party at the table, or anybody's " wife," or even 
the name of a female ? There was nothing in the communication to 
show that " S. C." might not have been the initials of some one of the 
other sex. Foster described the personal appearance of " S. C." so 
clearly that he evidently saw something, as he stated, at the back of 



I4 THE SALEM SEEK. 

C.'s chair. What did he see ? Why did he say wife instead of sister ? 

And again, how could Foster know that A y B 1 and S. C, 

near friends on earth, were evidently near friends in the spirit- world, 
unless he really saw them, and communed with them on this occasion, 
as he states he did ? If he had not thus communicated with them, 
how could he have told the name of the one, and the relation of the 
other to C. ? There was much more of strange and mystical charac- 
ter at this seance with Foster, which the length of this article forbids 
our touching upon, and we simply present these facts for the mental 
digestion of our readers — the great public. The test we suggested for 
the seer was fairly applied, and his superhuman powers were evidently 
equal to it. We were astonished ; though, if asked what our convic- 
tions are, we cannot answer. Nor can we announce those of our 
friend C. He was deeply moved and amazed, but touching his opin- 
ions as to the source of Foster's knowledge, we have nothing to say. 
Mr. Leaman, in the article in Scribner^s touching his interview, says : 
' ' Summing up the results, it may be asserted in brief that Foster told 
nothing of a specific nature that had not been, by written answers, 
first told him ; the answers of the spirit were reproductions of the 
written answers." Now, as we deal with facts and not theories, hav- 
ing no opinions to offer on the subject of Spiritualism, our investiga- 
tion in that direction being simply investigations after truth, we assert 
that our interview with Foster proves the complete falsity of Mr. 
Leaman's "summing up." There was not a word written in the 
communication prepared and sealed before the interview, and miles 
away from Foster, that could have given him the slightest indication 
of the information he gave our friend C, excepting that " S. C. died 
in 1849 " ; and with what kind of eyes did he see thus much ? The 
communication, exactly as it was written, and its results, we have here 
detailed, and speculators in mental phenomena can draw their own 
conclusions as to how the seer found out " S. C." was the name of a 
lady, that the lady was the wife, over a quarter of a century ago, of 
one of the gentlemen present. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



15 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Foster lived some time with the novelist, Bul- 
wer, at Knebworth, England. Bulwer was much in- 
terested in Spiritualism. He once said in speaking of 
these phenomena, ''No man knows how they are, nor 
denies that they are." He studied its phenomena, and 
never suffered himself or others to rail at it. Yet he 
was not a convert to Spiritualism, as then or now un- 
derstood. He had trained himself always to look at 
both sides of every question, so that when others at- 
tacked Spiritualism, he would guardedly defend it ; and 
when others enthusiastically supported it, he would 
attack its abuses ; so that neither side of the argument 
could fairly claim it. 

During Foster's visits to Bulwer the latter was engaged 
in constructing that wonderful novel called, "A Strange 
Story," in which certain spiritual phenomena are dis- 
cussed and illustrated in a manner as yet unsurpassed 
for originality and interest. Certain points in the hero 
of this novel were taken from the personnel 'and history 
of Foster, and Bulwer often alluded to the fact that Fos- 
ter was the model upon which he had based his Mar- 
grave. 

On several occasions Bulwer, who evidently regarded 
" A Strange Story " as his greatest book, would read 
passages from it to Foster. The two, author and 
medium, would sit in the library at Knebworth, side 
by side ; and there, after the reading, the author would 
become a disciple, and Foster would hold a seance. 

On one occasion Bulwer advised Foster confidentially 



1 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

not to call himself a " spiritualist," so that the name 
should not excite popular prejudice against him, but 
to give hib "exhibitions " merely as " scientific pheno- 
mena " ; but this advice was unpalatable to Foster. 

[The New York Era. ] 

And now the questions naturally arise, What does this man Foster 
do ? And how does he do it ? 

With regard to the second question with reference to the " how " — 
the modus operandi of the phenomena — nothing can be definitely 
known. Mr. Foster says unhesitatingly that they all take place through 
spirit agency, of which agency he is a mere instrument, and that he 
does not cause the phenomena any more than he could prevent them. 
He says candidly that the spirits come to him, and take possession of 
him, and communicate with him, and that all he can do is to submit 
to their influences, to do as he is told, and to tell others what they tell 
him. He certainly seems to be sincere in what he says, and resorts to 
no clap-trap whatever. There are no trances, no darkened rooms, 
no spirit faces, no music in the air, no feeling of hands and legs, etc., 
no charlatanism or trickery of any visible kind. He sits during a 
seance in a well-lighted room, beside a small table with no apparatus 
upon it and extremely simple ; he holds nothing in his hands, smokes 
a cigar, and converses on the ordinary subjects of the day at intervals. 
He claims that the spirits appear to him, or else whisper in his ear, 
and that their communications to him are all " external "—made from 
without — entirely independent of his own volition or mentality. It 
may be that all this is not true ; it may be that there is some trickery 
in the matter ; but, if so, from the very nature of the case, it is so skill- 
fully done as to amount to a positive miracle of skill ; and certainly no 
one, as yet, has been able either to expose the trickery or to explain 

the phenomena. 

[The Boston Herald.] 

The spirits may not have any part in the wonderful things done by 
Foster the " medium," but any man who sees his performances and 
thinks they are done by any sort of jugglery is an idiot of the most 
hopeless kind. 

{Boston Journal of Commerce, July 12, 1873.] 

Mr. Charles H. Foster, who has excited so much attention in 
London and New York by reason of his wonderful powers of com- 



THE SALEM SEER I 7 

municating with the other world, is at the Parker House, where he is 
holding seances. During the week several members of the press have 
visited him, and he has afforded every opportunity for a close investi- 
gation. His powers seem principally to be directed to the answering 
of written questions to the deceased. We ourselves witnessed a most 
remarkable exhibition of power on the occasion of our visit. A gentle- 
man connected with the press was notified that a brother of his was 
present. The journalist wrote in short-hand for his brother to write 
his initials on Mr. Foster's arm if he were present, and Mr. Foster im- 
mediately after notified the journalist that his brother had written his 
initials upon his arm, and, turning up his coat-sleeve, displayed to the 
astonishment of all the initials in red marks upon the arm. Other 
equally astonishing tests were given, and there can be no doubt that 
Mr. Foster is capable of astounding all with the phenomena he can 
develop at his seances. 

The following paragraph from the Philadelphia 
Evening Day of April 4, 1873, gives a good idea of the 
condition of mind which the editors and reporters were 
in when about to attend Mr. Foster's seances : 

We girded our armor, tightened any defective links, and grasped 
the sword of skepticism in one hand, with our breast guarded by the 
shield of unbelief, and helmet crowned by the theories of anti-spiritual- 
istic religious education, and made our way to the Continental Hotel. 

We give a few quotations of this writer's report : 

A PEEP AT THE FUTURE. 

One gentleman wrote, " When will I go to Europe ? " on a piece 
of paper, folded it up, and threw it in the pile. Rapidly, without 
opening the paper, or even looking at it, Foster replied, "Not before 
1875." The gentleman, who was apparently an Englishman, acknowl- 
edged that such was his intention. 

Then the brother of the gentleman appeared, and his name and dale 
of death were announced. A student then asked if his sister should 
take a journey. In a minute the medium was greatly excited. He 
said the influence was upon him very strong, and meant something 
urgent. "She must go at once," the spirit says; "great danger 
menaces if she remains. Go — go — go, by all means go " — at the same 
time forcibly striking the table with his hanct, and much determina- 

2 



1 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

tion. The gentleman , at our request, explained that his sister had 
come from England , but this climate did not agree with her, and she 
had urged him to send her back. 

A PUZZLED PARTY. 

We now thought it our turn, and asked the name of our infant 
brother who died in 1852. It was at once written on a piece of paper, 
in a large, scrawling hand, the medium exclaiming, "Ah, now we 
have one very near and dear to you." It was correct. Then we 
asked what disease brought death to him, and were requested to write 
a number of diseases on paper. We wrote about a dozen, and the 
medium, taking a pencil, half closed his eyes and ran his pencil 
through until he hit the right one, which he marked and threw to us. 
Our lips we bit slightly. How could he know that? 

At one time during the sitting he announced : "A spirit who died 
of apoplexy is present." None of us recollected any such friend. 
Presently he gave the name, and we then recollected that it was the 
name of an acquaintance, a person with whom we were on but little 
better terms than an occasional meeting and conversation. He had 
died, however, several years ago, during our absence from the city, 
and we had either never heard the cause of his death, or else forgotten 
it. Here, then, was an admirable test, — and this morning, on our 
way to our office, we stopped and inquired of a person who knew, 
and ascertained that the death occurred from apoplexy. That's a 
stunner for us, and leaves us more mystified than ever. 

In conclusion, we would state that Mr. Foster remains here until 
the 15th hist., and those who disbelieve our statements can call on him 
themselves, assuring them that our article was in no way prompted by 
Mr. Foster, but by a desire to place our experiences before the public, 
we having heard extraordinary statements of his ability. 

We regard the account of the following seance as 
one of the most remarkable : 

Last night we again held an interview with Mr. Charles Foster, the 
spiritual medium, and our object was to ascertain how far he could 
communicate with the spirits of the ancients. Unknown to him we 
wrote on separate slips of paper the names, Virgil, Don Pedro Calde- 
ron de la Barca, Lope Felix de Vega. Don Miguel de Cervantes, and 
also the name of a dead man under whom we had received instruc- 
tions in the modern languages. Very soon Mr. Foster handed us a 
paper, stating that it bore the name of 



THE SALEM SEER. 



19 



VIRGIL, THE LATIN BARD, 

who wished to communicate with us. We asked him several ques- 
tions, among them the authorship of the lines in the ^Eneid, " Hcec 
olim meminisse juvabit" which were written on a slip of paper and 
apparently not seen by Mr. Foster. Virgil claimed the authorship of 
these lines, and added nine or ten consecutive verses. By request 
made in writing, as all our questions were, and none of them read by 
Mr. Foster, proper quotations were made from the various passages in 
the ALneid and Georgics. Satisfying ourselves on this point, the 

SPIRIT OF THE PROFESSOR 

in the above named manner announced its presence, and thereupon 
ensued the following dialogue, Mr. Foster speaking as the medium of 
our ethereal friend, whom we asked concerning a friend, long dead, 
and whom we shall call Albito, he being an Italian : 

Dov'e' ? (Where is he ?) 

Spirit — Dov'e' chi? (Where is who ?) 

Albito ? 

Spirit — Non e' Inglesese ; e Italian. (He is not an Englishman; he 
is an Italian.) Stelle infermo da sei mese. (He was sick about six 
months.) 

Dov'e' il mio socio ? (Where is my companion, or friend ?), we now 
asked, for our credulity was shaken, inasmuch as Albito had been 
killed by robbers. 

Spirit — L'uccesero al suo retorno. (They killed him on his return.) 

We felt satisfied the medium knew something, for the manner of 
this young friend's death, murdered as he was, was here related, and 
each circumstance connected with it detailed. We next were requested 
to hold a conversational 

INTERVIEW WITH CERVANTES, 

whom we asked to give us the concluding lines to the piece of poetry 
in the second chapter of Don Quijote de la Mancha, which reads, 
Munca fuera caballero, etc. Immediately was written its other lines, 
De damas tan bien servido como fuera Lanzarote cuando de Bretano 
vino. Other test-questions were asked Cervantes, who answered them 
promptly. 

CALDERON 

next communicated with us, and we asked him to state the third line 
to the two last in his drama, entitled El Principe Constante. Instantly 
was written on the paper, ' ' Aqui de sus yer ros grandes, ' ' which line 



20 THE SALEM SEEK. 

is the one asked for. We then asked for the second line in the third 
act, after 

THE DEVIL ENTERS. 

The answer was written correctly, in these words : ' ' Osabio maestro 
mio." We doubted that Calderon was the author of three hundred 
and twenty pieces, but he assured us he was the author of many more 
which had never been published. Our conversation with de Vega 
was interrupted, and not as many questions asked through the medium 
of Mr. Foster, who stated that he did not know the meaning of the 
words written ; he was an agency merely, and had no comprehension 
of what often was dictated. Very often he would speak the answers, 
but usually so fast none but a true Italian or Spaniard could catch 
every word. As to the means he has of communicating this informa- 
tion, selecting even the concluding word in a line from almost any poet 
of antiquity, we do not pretend to explain at present, but merely leave 
our readers to infer. 

The extracts of accounts of the different seances pre- 
viously quoted were written, I think in every in- 
stance, by gentlemen who had no faith in the genuine- 
ness of the so-called spiritual phenomena. I might 
say that the majority were convinced that they would 
be compelled to write adverse criticisms. They were 
men of ability, position and character. Men not easily 
deceived, and their testimony, together with that of the 
writer, I think sufficient proof that there was no trickery, 
sleight-of-hand, or deception in Mr. Foster's manifesta- 
tions. 

From whence came the power? I know not. I 
have given this matter years of study and investigation, 
and I am not convinced that there is any communica- 
tion between what is termed the spiritual world and 
this world. There are a certain class of people desig- 
nated as mediums, who have a power, a gift, or sixth 
sense, which has never been satisfactorily explained. 
It is my impression that three-fourth to seven-eighths 
of all so-called spiritual manifestations are fraudulent ; 



THE SALEM SEEK. 2 1 

that the mediums willfully deceive for money ; that 
the one-eighth to one-quarter of genuine phenomena 
make it possible for the frauds to exist. 

Humanity always has been and is to-day, thirsting 
for some satisfactory proof of immortality. " If a man 
die shall he live again ? " is a question asked anew every 
day. Alas, will it ever be answered beyond a doubt ! 
It is this unanswered question which makes new reli- 
gions and isms spring up, and for a time flourish like 
the green bay tree. 

I have a vivid recollection of a certain seance where 
Mr. Foster described the brother of a certain individual 
in the room as a spirit. The spirit was described as 
having bright red hair, freckled face, short chin-whis- 
kers, etc. The gentleman said, "You have given the 
name correctly, and you have perfectly described my 
brother, but he is alive and lives in Albany." Mr. 
Foster replied, "In these visions, I perceive the per- 
sons plainly, but I cannot always tell whether the spirit 
be in the body, or out of the body." This incident 
seemed to be strong proof that the other life has noth- 
ing necessarily to do with the manifestations. He had 
the gift to see with the mental, or what might be called 
spirit eye, certain forms, which he saw distinctly, and 
could describe correctly. Mr. Foster sees a form stand- 
ing at the back of a gentleman's chair. He describes 
him so accurately that we are positive he sees him, 
but we find that the person described is alive and 
lives in Albany. That certainly does not prove an 
after life ! Now we will suppose the person to have 
died, and gone to the supposed spirit world instead of 
Albany. Does the fact that Mr. Foster sees distinctly 
the vision of that person prove immortality, or another 
life, or a continuance of this life ? 



2 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

I feel that it is a duty which I owe — with the experi- 
ence I have had — to defend the small part of the phe- 
nomena which I am positive is genuine. Occasionally 
a reporter or editor of some journal would explain 
away Mr. Foster's supposed power, showing how the 
"tricks," as they termed them, were executed. For 
instance, the New Orleans Picayu?ie gave what they 
called an expose of Mr. Foster's performances, in seven 
different phases. 

No. 1, they called the pellet trick, that is, where 
questions were written, folded up, and thrown down 
upon the table. They said Mr. Foster had a secret 
spring, which would let the questions drop into a 
drawer, and While he engaged the party in conversa- 
tion, he was opening the questions by the aid of his 
hand and knee. Of course such an explanation was 
absurd, as he sat at different tables nearly every day. 
The tables could be examined by any one, and if he 
had read the questions, at least two-thirds of them 
would not have given him any clue as to the correct 
answer. 

No. 2, which was independent writing under the 
table, was said to be done by Mr. Foster's using a 
lead-pencil which was placed between his toes, calling 
attention to the fact that he usually wore slippers, and 
that he could easily wear glove socks, or split socks. 
That he was no doubt an expert writer with his toes. 
This explanation was equally absurd, as Mr. Foster was 
quite fleshy, and it was with some effort that he could 
even cross his legs. He certainly never could have 
been taught to write communications with his toes. 

No. 3, was the writing on his arm and hand, which 
they said was a common trick, which he did with a 
match, or the sharp point of any piece of steel. As 



THE SALEM SEER. 23 

soon as Mr. Foster and I read that explanation, we tried 
the experiment, but it was a failure. We did manage 
to get a few queer initials, but they failed to come and 
go as quickly. If the number of names which appeared 
on his arm and hand in one week had been caused by 
scratching matches on his flesh, I think he would have 
been badly mutilated. I know of no explanation of 
this "blood-red writing on the arm," the Stigmata. 

All the exposes of Mr. Foster's power simply strength- 
ened his reputation, and confirmed its genuineness. 

It was in the early days of my acquaintance with Mr. 
Foster that a friend of mine, by the name of Adams, 
from Evansville, Ind. , called upon me, stating that he 
was interested in Spiritualism, and having been told 
that I was acquainted with Mr. Foster requested me 
to introduce him. We called upon Mr. Foster, and 
Mr. Adams procured a very satisfactory seance. As he 
was leaving, Mr. Foster told him that in all his experi- 
ence he had never known one individual to bring so 
many spirits ; that he should suppose the whole Adams 
family had appeared to him, the room being literally 
packed with them, coming and going. About two 
o'clock the next morning, Mr. Foster called to me (I 
was sleeping in the same room), saying, "George, will 
you please light the gas ? I cannot sleep, the room is 
still filled with the Adams family, and they seem to 
be writing their names all over me. " And to my as- 
tonishment, a list of names of the Adams family were 
displayed upon his body. I counted eleven distinct 
names : one was written across his forehead, others 
on his arms, and several on his back. It seemed to 
me then, and still seems to me, as being almost mirac- 
ulous. I can simply term it unexplained, genuine phe- 
nomena, where trickery was impossible. 



24 THE SALEM SEER. 

As a class, I do not regard the character of mediums 
high. They are morally weak. It seems necessary, 
if controlled by this peculiar power, to be of a decidedly 
negative disposition, pliable, and easily influenced. 
Mediums who can easily become entranced, or be con- 
trolled successfully by this mysterious influence, can 
as easily be controlled by their associates in this life, 
either for evil or good. I wish to convey the idea that 
they have less will power than ordinary humanity. 
They are not vicious, but passive, and more easily led 
by others. If their associations are in the higher and 
better walks of life, their lives will average well. On 
the contrary, if they are associated with the immoral, 
they are easily led down the stream. It has been my 
observation that when a man or woman has been con- 
trolled by these peculiar influences, they are inclined 
to be weak, dissipated and immoral. They are almost 
invariably kind-hearted, generous and childlike. I am 
inclined to think that many of the fraudulent mediums 
have some genuine power to start with, but they are 
such weak characters, and with such utter lack of 
principle, that they soon turn into mere mountebanks, 
to procure a few dollars from credulous believers. At 
times, while investigating supposed phenomena, I have 
been pained, at other times disgusted, to see with what 
apparent ease intelligent and good men and women 
were deceived by imposters. There are many people so 
anxious for some token or proof of. an after life, espe- 
cially those who are in sorrow, that they seem blind to 
all reason, and are willing to accept any kind of falsity 
as truth. Possibly many of that class are so good and 
pure themselves that they cannot conceive of men and 
women who are willing to falsify and trick upon such 
sacred matters. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



25 



I do not wish to convey the idea that there are not 
good men, women and children who are gifted with 
mediumistic powers. Especially do we find such out- 
side of spiritualistic circles. There are several excel- 
lent men, like Judge Edmonds and Mr. Kiddle, who were 
converted to Spiritualism through the marvelous mani- 
festations which they witnessed through their own 
children. 

Speaking of the mediumistic power, which has shown 
itself from time to time through children, brings to my 
mind an interesting incident which Mr. Foster and I 
witnessed while visiting New Orleans, in the year 
1873. A gentleman called on us at the St. Charles 
Hotel, bringing his two daughters, aged five and seven 
years. He said he came to make some inquiries, as he 
and his wife were somewhat worried about the pecu- 
liar manifestations which had occurred through his 
daughters. Hearing that Mr. Foster was a celebrated 
spiritual medium, he hoped to obtain some explanation. 
They were quite ordinary looking children, and not 
well dressed. Among many manifestations which he 
testified to having seen occur through them, was the 
smaller one's being tied and untied, without the aid of 
human hands. I asked him if I should put the child in 
the ordinary clothes-press which stood in our room, if 
he thought the phenomenon could take place ? He said 
undoubtedly. I asked the little child if she would sit 
there, and be tied. She lisped out, "Yeth." Indeli- 
bly is the occurrence stamped upon my brain. I viv- 
idly recall the afternoon, and remember how I picked 
up the little one, about as I would a good-sized doll, 
and placed it on a pile of crumpled linen in the ward- 
robe. I said, " We have no rope." Mr. Foster sug- 
gested tying together some of our neckties. I did so, 



26 THE SALEM SEER. 

as we had a number which we were anxious to dispose 
of. When tied, they measured about six yards in 
length. As the child requested, I placed the necktie 
rope folded in her lap. She lisped out again, " I am 
ready." I immediately proceeded to close the door, 
but hardly had I done so before I heard another lisp, 
which said, "I am tied." I pulled the door open 
instantly, and beheld her tied most securely. She was 
still sitting on the linen, with the cravats around her 
waist and wrists, and tied to. the topmost hooks above. 
It was in broad daylight, and her father and Mr. Foster 
were sitting at the opposite end of the room. 

After untying with some difficulty some of the knots, 
I retied them as securely as possible, and at such places 
in the wardrobe as were impossible for her to reach. 
In fact, I tied her so that she could not move. Upon 
closing the doors, she at once lisped out, "Untied." 
Only a few seconds elapsed in tying or untying the 
child. 

Up to that time, I had witnessed much phenomena 
which had astonished me, but this in its simplicity, and 
the utter impossibility of deception, made an impression 
upon me which I shall never forget. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



27 



CHAPTER III. 

[Northern Border, Bangor, Maine, September ij, 187 j>.] 

We now sit down, after having given a sketch of the origin and 
histories of the two Spiritualisms, as presented in our last issue, to re- 
late what experience we had with the great spiritual medium, Mr. 
Charles H. Foster; and this service we propose to do, whatever may 
have been or may now be our personal opinions, with judicial fairness. 

Our friend first received the attention of the medium. He received 
many wonderful statements ; but we shall not relate them; for, as tes- 
timony through us, they would be second-hand; and we shall confine 
our report to those things that concern ourself. 

When our turn came, the medium remarked that he was getting a 
wonderful manifestation — the initials of a spirit present stamped in 
characters of blood upon the posterior surface of his left hand ; and 
when he held the hand up where we could see it — it was before upon 
his lap — we could see certain lines running transversely to the direc- 
tion of the veins, of a deep purple color, which the medium could not 
quite read. The letters were evidently three in number; they were 
about four inches in length ; and Mr. Foster thought them to be G. F. 
T. "Perhaps," said we, "they are meant for G. V. T." "Oh, 
yes," said Mr. Foster, "they are the initials of your own dear 
GEORGE! " 

Mr. Foster then said that George was present; that another person 
was standing near us, professing to be our mother ; that still another, 
standing on the other side of us, was our father ; and that they were 
all glad of this opportunity of holding intercourse with us, and ready 
to answer any questions. 

We asked, " Can you see them ? " 
"Oh, yes," replied the medium, "very plainly." 
"If you can see them," we resumed, "you will be so good as to 
describe our father." 

"Certainly," said Mr. Foster. " He is a tall man — a little round- 
shouldered, as if he had been a student, but not at all disfigured ; has 
a very large head, with a high, broad, massive forehead; has a full, 
prominent, blue-gray eye — looks stern, even severe, and has a heavy 



28 THE SALEM SEER t 

prominent nose ; he is not severe, but only looks so — naturally given 
to mirth, when not seriously engaged; is very approachable if you 
have any business with him; stands holding out before him a very 
large book, like the Bible or a law-book; he must have been a minis- 
ter, or a judge." 

We then asked him if he could decide upon what his business was 
in life. "Oh, yes," said the medium. "He says if you will write 
down the names of a dozen occupations, he will point out his own." 

We complied with this request. We wrote them with a pencil on a 
slip of paper. The medium seized the pencil as we dropped it — began 
to trace lines in a trembling rotary motion all about the paper — crossed 
off name after name as the pencil quivered along its tertuous and 
irregular course, till two names were left. 

We said, as he dropped the pencil, "There are two names." 

"Yes," said the medium, "and he had two occupations." 

The words left upon the paper were Lawyer and Justice. 

" How long," we asked, "was he a justice? " 

Almost as soon as we could speak the words, the answer came from 
Mr. Foster's pencil — "30 years." 

" What was our father's name? " we then inquired. 

" He says I shall write it for him," replied Mr. Foster. Upon this 
he seized the pencil and wrote a name, which might have been de- 
ciphered Amor, or Amos, or Amon Teft. 

"It cannot be our father," said we ; "for he knew exactly what 
his name was ; and he also knew how to spell it." 

"Will our friend write his name more plainly and spell it right? " 
asked Foster. 

Seizing again the pencil, he wrote very plainly, and this time re- 
sembling our father's real hand — Amon Tefft — the only man of his 
name, we believe, since this world began ; and no person in Maine or 
in New England, besides ourself, could have so readily stated it. 

"But you say our mother is here also. Can you give us her maiden 
name in full? " we asked. 

"She says she will write it," was the immediate answer of Mr. 
Foster. 

Taking a slip of paper, about four inches square, and holding it 
under the table about ten seconds, he brought it up again, when we 
saw written on it what might have been read Hott, or Hatt, or Hett, 
so badly were the letters formed. We pointed out this ambiguity to 
Mr. Foster, and he at once said : "Will mother write her name so 
plainly that we can read it?" He then held another similar slip be- 



THE SALEM SEER. 



2 9 



neath the table, between ourself, and him, and in less time than be- 
fore brought it up with the name written in a round, full, legible 
hand — Holt. 

The moment the latter name was produced, Mr. Foster broke 
forth in a personal address to us, as if from our mother, full of kind- 
ness and affection, and promising us with constant love and guidance, 
which closed up with the words, " From your own dear mother, 
Rebecca Holt." 

Only one person in New England, besides ourself, knew that 
name ! 

Mr. Foster then said that "George " wished us to write down such 
questions as we would like answered. We hesitated an instant. 
" He says he will answer the questions you have in your pocket," in- 
terposed the medium. We had forgotten that we had brought any 
written questions. We felt in several pockets and could find none. 
We remembered writing some, but thought we must have left or lost 
them. We so stated. Mr. Foster insisted that we had some with us. 
We made a more thorough search and found them jammed down by a 
mass of letters into the bottom of our coat-pocket. Taking them out, 
and folding out the crumpled mass — the paper was soft printing-paper 
— we tore off half a dozen questions, in separate pieces, folded each 
one up several times over and over, then laid them down upon the 
table. 

One was, " Is there any resurrection of the material body ? " 

Mr. Foster picked it up, and at the same instant answered : "I do 
not know, father; but I think not. Why should there be, for I have 
now as good a body as I could wish ? " 

Another question was: "Is there any intermediate state of the 
dead?" 

The medium began making this answer the moment his fingers 
touched the paper: "No, father, when we leave the world, we go 
straight to heaven." 

A third question was, ' ' Have you seen in your present state any of 
your relations ? ' ' 

The reply came as promptly as before : ' ' Yes, father, I am with 
them very often." 

We then asked the medium if the one he called "George" would 
answer a test-question. He answered, " Yes, he says he will." We 
then asked in an audible voice, ' ' Will you state how many of your 
father's family are in this life, and how many there are in spirit- 
land?" 



30 THE SALEM SEER. 

"He wishes to know," said Mr. Foster, " whether he is to include 
himself ? ' ' 

We answered, " Yes "; and then the medium said, " He will point 
out the numbers on the card." 

We then picked up a card that had been lying on the table, which 
contained the alphabet and the numerals up to nine and the cipher. 
We touched the figures all around at random, for quite a while, keep- 
ing clear of the true numbers. We at last touched the figure four ; 
and we heard the three raps, indicating, as they say, that that was 
right. We then repeated the process, and we again touched figure 
four, the same raps occurred. " How is that? " inquired the medium. 
" Oh, I see," he said immediately, "he says there are four with you 
and four with him, himself included," which was the fact. 

We then asked if he would answer another test-question. "Cer- 
tainly," said Mr. Foster. 

Speaking to the medium, we said, "Will you state our exact age? " 

Mr. Foster's reply was, " He will point it out on the card." 

We then, as before, carelessly struck the figures on the card, for 
some time keeping clear of the right ones. At last we touched figure 
six, when the three raps followed. We passed on, however, as if we 
did not hear them. Again, after a little skirmishing, we hit six 
again ; the three raps were repeated. We then ran all along the line 
of figures, touching every one of them, but not in serial order. We 
obtained no response till we reached the cipher ; and then came, not 
three raps, but a sort of confused knocking. The medium seemed 
puzzled for a moment. Soon, however, his face cleared up, and he 
said, "George is puzzled how to answer by the card ; for he says 
you will not be sixty years of age till the 20th of this month." It was 
then the 18th ; and the age was thus given to a day. 

We then received what purported to be a voluntary communication 
from George. It was professedly dictated to, and certainly writ 
ten out by, Mr. Foster. We have not the document with us as we 
write, but we can give the substance of it very readily. It was about 
as follows : 

Dear Father — It is as great a satisfaction to me as it can be to 
you to have this meeting. Do not think of me as lying in the ground. 
All that was material has gone back to dust. But I am still living 
and very happy. I stand near you every day, and always will stand 
near you to guard and guide you. We shall meet again, and finally 
make an unbroken family in Heaven. George. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



3^ 



This communication was apparently the closing act of the seance ; 
for the medium rose and said that he could do no more. But it was 
not quite the closing act. "Oh," said Mr. Foster, as if a last word 
had been hastily added, "George says, 'Give my love to Frank ! ' 
Who is Frank? " said the medium. "Is there any one he used to 
call Frank ? ' ' 

"Yes," replied we, "he has a living brother of that name, a den- 
tist in this city." 

Such, reader, as perfectly as we can recall it, and with the most 
absolute fairness, by the help of a memory that scarcely ever fails us, 
was our seance, or sitting, with the celebrated medium, Mr. Charles 
H. Foster. Remember, however, it was our first seance. We went 
twice afterwards, each time with a friend, and a friend whose relatives 
were our relatives, whose loves are our loves, but in different degrees. 
All the names they wrote — all the persons they called for — were no 
more familiar to them than to us ; as some things happened to them 
quite additional to our experience, we propose to write out what we 
saw and heard on these occasions, to be published in our next 
number. 

It is due to all concerned now to say — which we do frankly — that, 
as to mere facts, without implying at this time any opinion, Mr. Fos- 
ter made not one mistake, so far as we were concerned, in this whole 
sitting. The raps were real raps, quite audible, though not loud, and 
sensible to the feeling, when the hands were laid upon the table. 

Again, the impression of the three large letters, upon the back of 
the medium's hand, was a visible impression, and not the mere swell- 
ing of the veins ; for the veins all run the other way ; and more than 
that, the letters faded away and vanished as we were looking at them. 

Again, the description given of the writer's father was about as ac- 
curate as any one would conceive of him, had he been familiar with 
his appearance, as we were forty years ago ; his name was written 
correctly, very much as he used to write it, though not exactly ; his 
two occupations were stated rightly ; for, though a lawyer by profes- 
sion, he held that office known under the old New York constitution 
as County Justice, now called County Judge ; and this position he 
held consecutively for thirty years., precisely as Mr. Foster stated ; 
for we well remember hearing him say, upon his being re-elected the 
last time, that he should not accept the office, as a man who had held 
the same position for thirty years had held it long enough. He there- 
fore declined the honor, and never took it afterwards ; and no person 
living but ourself could have recalled this fact. 



32 THE SALEM SEER. 

Again, our mother's maiden name was given correctly ; and yet we 
had not written her name or our father's for months and years. Nor 
was either name on any of the slips of paper that we had handed in. 
Our mother's name was really written under the table — in about ten 
seconds — and not, as we believe, by Mr. Foster. He could not have 
done so without our seeing the operation ; for the paper and his hand 
were within a few inches of us. Then, who knew that her name was 
Rebecca but ourself ? 

Again, it was a fact we had written out a series of questions before 
going to see Mr. Foster, but had forgotten all about them, till re- 
minded of the fact by his saying that we had such questions in our 
pocket. 

Again, when Mr. Foster picked up the papers containing our 
queries, they were folded several times, close and tight. Nor did he 
look at them with his eyes. He began to make his answers the mo- 
ment his hand touched the papers ; and he was generally looking 
somewhere else. 

Again, it was and is a fact- a fact that could not have been known 
to Mr. Foster — that the writer's family of children are equally divided 
between the living and the departed, exactly as he stated. 

Again, the written communication was somewhat after the manner 
of our son — so were all his answers — but we make no great account of 
this circumstance ; for any person might have composed the letter ; 
and the similarities of style may be imaginary or accidental. The 
last word, however — the message sent to our living son — was a very 
different thing. Frank was George's idol when they were both alive. 
They were nearly of an age. They were both brought up together ; 
and there were circumstances in their joint history, not necessary to 
be mentioned, which made the younger regard with marked tender- 
ness his elder brother. It was strikingly natural — if he had time to 
send but a single message to the family — that he should in his hurry, 
or rather the medium's hurry, send it to his brother Frank. When, 
during the war, he was away in Europe, he always said that if his 
brother should be drafted, he would resign his office, go home and 
take his place. There was great devotion on his part through life. 
This short message — "Give my love to Frank" — had, therefore, a 
meaning in it, which no one can feel as he does who here puts it to 
paper and to print. 

We have felt very reluctant to give an exact report of this seance, as 
it enters so far into the domain of our personal and family affairs. 
But such are the subjects in regard to which we could most accurately 



THE SALEM SEER. 



S3 



test this matter. We had also promised several of our friends, and 
the public, that we would publish, without fear or favor, exactly what 
we should see and hear. We have now redeemed our pledge, and we 
have at present nothing further to say upon the subject. 

It was astonishing- the number of people who, upon 
leaving Mr. Foster's seances, would say, "It is all 
animal magnetism"; "It is mesmerism"; "It is 
simply electricity"; "It is clairvoyance." These 
words are significant. They truly contain a volume in 
a word, and certainly only superficial minds would 
use them so flippantly. Others would settle the enigma 
by saying, "It is mind-reading," as though mind-read- 
ing were an easy and simple thing. 

This reminds me of my first experience in what seems 
so incorrectly called — mind-reading. While Mr. Foster 
and I were at the Southern Hotel, in St. Louis, we re- 
ceived a call from an old gentleman, evidently from the 
country, who brought with him an awkward lad of 
about eighteen years of age. The old gentleman said the 
young man seemed to have some peculiar power, and 
that he called upon Mr. Foster, hoping he might be 
enlightened in regard to the young man's strange gifts. 
I experimented with him for about one hour. I thought 
of an article in my overcoat pocket, in the adjoining 
room. By taking my hand he, without much difficulty, 
led me into the other room to my overcoat, and took 
the article from the pocket. Mr. Foster was unable to 
give them any satisfactory explanation. This was the 
young man who later became so well known as 
" Brown, the mind-reader." He gave exhibitions before 
committees at several universities. The so-called 
mind-readers, including the late Washington Irving 
Bishop, do not seem to have accomplished much. 
Many persons occasionally arrive at correct conclusions 

3 



34 THE SALEM SEER. 

regarding another's thoughts, judging by circumstances, 
or expression of countenance. But I am quite sure 
that it is utterly impossible to read another's mind. 
There is no such art, or science, as mind-reading. 

On one occasion upon our arrival in New York from 
a southern tour, we found considerable excitement 
among spiritualists over a committee which had been 
formed for the purpose of exposing so-called mediums. 
They had an office in the lower part of Broadway, 
and advertised at the spiritual meetings, and other 
places, that they proposed to expose all professional 
mediums, and that they were convinced that they could 
perform, without any spiritual or other unknown aid, 
any manifestation, performances or tricks which were 
done by private or professional mediums. I met them 
at a conference of spiritualists which convened every 
Sunday afternoon to discuss Spiritualism. I found the 
committee bright, smart and intelligent gentlemen, who 
seemed to be in earnest, and I am confident they be- 
lieved they were doing, and were still to do, work which 
would be a benefit to society. A day or two before meet- 
ing them, I had advertised Mr. Foster in one of the 
daily papers as the Great Unexposed Spiritual Medium. 
They attacked me quite sharply at the conference, and 
said they were about to "go" for Mr. Foster; that 
they intended to expose him, and said they had heard 
about what he could do ; that they had been exposing 
like phenomena, and if I would call at their rooms on 
Broadway they would show me how it was done. I told 
them I had had some experience in these matters, and 
that I thought they were going a little too fast. That 
it was true that there was. much humbug, sleight-of- 
hand and deception, but that if they investigated this 
subject long enough, and were anxious to get at the 



THE SALEM SEER. 



35 



truth, they would find enough genuine phenomena 
which they could not explain to keep them in active 
study during their earthly existence. They said I 
looked like an honest man, and talked very fairly, but 
that I was deceived. They wished to know when they 
could have a seance with Mr. Foster. I told them 
I should be glad to make an appointment whenever it 
was agreeable, but that it would cost each of them five 
dollars. They then wished to know if two or three per- 
sons could sit about the room in different places which 
they should designate, free of charge. I told them no. 
That they could bring as many detectives or friends as 
they chose to sit around the room, or under the table, but 
it would be five dollars for each person. I told the 
leader, however, that it was Mr. Foster's custom never 
to take a dollar unless the parties were perfectly satisfied, 
and that although they were prejudiced, and it seemed 
to me almost determined not to be convinced, I would 
however make the same terms with them, and that if 
after the seance they still believed they could give the 
same performance, and that the whole thing was de- 
ception, their money would be returned. They were 
somewhat surprised at the generous proposition. Five 
of them called, according to agreement. Two or three 
sat at the table, the others in different parts of the room 
as they chose. I shall not forget that seance. The 
facial expressions were a profound study. At the 
close they each paid their five dollars eagerly, and 
said they had certainly received the worth of their 
money. In their insinuating way they complimented 
Mr. Foster, saying he was the cleverest medium they 
had met yet. That they intended to get at the bottom, 
facts and expose everything he had done, but they 
would admit that they could not do so at present. 



36 THE SALEM SEER. 

They proved a very profitable committee to Mr Foster, 
and had many seances with him, willingly paying the 
full price each time; and, although they severely de- 
nounced Spiritualism, and mediums in general, thev 
were fair enough afterwards, in their speeches at the 
conference, to do Mr. Foster partial justice. They 
acknowledged that while they still believed it all a trick, 
they were unable to find out the modus opera?idi. 

Although Mr. Foster has long since been numbered 
with the dead, thereby preventing the reader to verify 
the truth or falsity through him of what has been 
here stated, still there are hundreds of well-known 
people in New York to-day who were well acquainted 
with Mr. Foster, and who spent much time in his 
society, and at his seances. I think I can, without 
giving offense, refer to such gentlemen as John Russell 
Young, Frank B. Carpenter, Steele Mackay, George 
Sheriden, Dr. Crane. George Chase, Charles \V. Brooke 
and A. E. Lancaster. I am sure these gentlemen and 
many others will gladly verify and testify to the truth 
of what I have written as to the peculiar gifts of Mr. 
Foster. 

Unlike other mediums, Mr. Foster needed no "con- 
ditions." All times, all days, and all places were alike 
to him. Raps in answer to questions came at his bid- 
ing, standing at the corner of the street, in the grocery 
store, in .the cafe, or riding in the Broadway stage. 
Thomas R. Hazard writes : 

One day as I was passing down Fifth Avenue I thought I heard my 
name pronounced, and looking back saw Poster and a stranger 
standing quietly by an iron railing. I turned, when Foster beckoned 
and asked me to wait for him a moment, as he wished to see me. 
Shortly after the stranger left, and Foster joined me. As we walked 
down the avenue, he told me that the gentleman who had just left him 



THE SALEM SEEK, 



37 



was an occasional visitant of his circles, who had a short time before 
joined him on the avenue and said to him : " Mr. Foster, I wish you 
could make the raps somewhere else than in your own room," to 
which Foster replied that he could have them come anywhere ! The 
gentleman said, " I will give you a dollar for each one you will make 
just here." Whereupon Foster asked the skeptic to stand with him 
beside the iron railing and count aloud all the raps as they were made. 
Soon the raps came on the iron railing, and the gentleman counted 
them until the number ten was reached, when a pause ensued, and 
Foster asked if the raps should yet go on? " No," said the gentle- 
man ; "lam satisfied," suiting his action to his word by handing 
Foster a ten dollar bill, which he then showed to me. 

Mr. Foster was fond of walking the streets, and riding 
in cabs and stages. He did not like to be confined, and 
was apt to neglect attending to his seances. When I 
would remonstrate with him, he was always pleased if 
I would consent to leave it to the spirits as to whether 
people were waiting for him at his apartments. It 
was quite evident to me that the spirits were very apt to 
favor him, for if he wished to make a call, or s^o riding 
in the park, they invariably rapped out that there was 
no one waiting for him at his rooms. He always had 
the advantage, I think, when any dispute or misunder- 
standing was left to his spirit friends. 

Fabulous stories have been told about the amount of 
money which Mr. Foster made out of his profession. The 
reports have been greatly exaggerated. He received five 
dollars for each person at a seance, and usually averaged 
from ten to forty persons each day. He was frequently 
invited to private houses to give seances, and on such oc- 
casions he was paid $50, but sometimes received $100. 
The largest receipts in a regular way, which I remem- 
ber, was one day in San Francisco, when they amounted 
to nearly $300. One other day I especially remember, 
while at the White Heart Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, 



38 THE SALEM SEER. 

when he was visited by a delegation from the Mel- 
bourne Club, the receipts were nearly $400. But a 
fair average day was $100. His money, however, 
melted away like snowflakes in the sunshine. It 
has been said, "Money flowed into his coffers like 
water, and as freely flowed out, leaving nothing 
behind." I wish to state most emphatically that not a 
dollar did Mr. Foster squander in gambling. A report 
gained quite a circulation to that effect. I think it only 
justice to him that I make this statement. While he 
had many faults, gambling w T as not one of them. He 
did not even know the Ace of Spades from the Queen 
of Hearts, never having played a game of cards in his 
life. 

The largest number at one seance which I remember 
was thirty-three persons. Frequently people would 
come with one question, and when answered immedi- 
ately depart. Others would tax the medium to his full- 
est capacity, often leaving him in a nervous and 
uncomfortable condition. Frequently after asking two 
or three questions, they would be so surprised at the 
answers, and so astonished to hear the names of their 
dead ones spoken, that they would make excuses and 
leave at once. They needed the fresh air ! 



THE SALEM SEER. 



39 



CHAPTER IV. 

The following account is from the Evansville Daily 
Journal, Dec. 28th, 1872, written by the editor: 

The answer came as before, ' ' We are happy to inform you that 

dear little Willie W , your aunt's little boy, is with me and very 

happy. He is much grown." 

The remarkable thing about this reply is that Willie's name was 
written in full, and had not been mentioned or written before that 
time; neither had any reference of any kind been made to "Aunt 
Mary," whose son, little Willie, had been in this world. These things 
it was impossible for the medium to have gained by anything that 
transpired in the room or from what had been written, even granting 
that Mr. Foster saw the writing, which was impossible. 

Again we asked of the grandfather : " Can you tell where grandma, 
mother, and Aunt N are ? " 

Answer: k ' Your Grandma , N , and S are herein 

Evansville." Here the names were given just as the grandmother 
had been accustomed to speaking them in life, the first name of each 
person. These names had not been written in the question, nor any 
reference made to them. 

It now came the second spirit-interviewer's opportunity, and he 
wrote the name of his deceased father among others upon the slip, folded 
them, and placed them on the table. 

The medium did as before, and said that this spirit's name would 
appear in letters of blood upon his hand. He held his open hand 
just below the drop-light, and gradually the color in the centre of 
the back of the hand began to redden, one vein became swollen, and 
finally there were the letters 

"W. T." IN BLOOD RED 

upon it. He held it there until the color had entirely disappeared 
and the natural hue restored to it. He then placed a paper under the 
table, and" W T " was again written upon it. The inter- 



40 THE SALEM SEER. 

viewer then asked, on paper concealed and folded up, "When did I 
last see you ? " The answer came, "1854," which was pronounced 
correct. 

Aside from the phenomenon of 

THE DISCOLORED HAND 

is the strange revelation of this date, which the interviewer states was 
not known to a single person in Evansville, his father having died in 
that year near Cincinnati. 

\The Memphis Avalanche, of Jan. nth, /8/j.] 

In the next seance, a gentleman asked a female spirit what was the 
favorite air she used to hum. The answer was : 

Polly, put the kettle on, 
Let's all take tea, 

which the gentleman promptly declared to be correct. During this 
sitting all sorts of names and precise dates were furnished with sin- 
gular promptness, and a considerable number of predictions were 
given. Some of the questions and answers were remarkably piquant 
and significant, and this was probably the most satisfactory seance 
given by Mr. Foster since his arrival in Memphis. Perhaps the best 
test of all, the ancient family colored nurse, who spelled out her name 
by the alphabet, and gave her age at death by the figures 97 in red, on 
the back of the medium's hand. To Mr. D. came a written message 
from a gentleman who died nearly three years ago in California, who 
wrote his own Christian name on a paper under the table, and after- 
wards gave through the medium his own proper signature ; also a 
message from a lady who gave her name in full as written, and after- 
wards, by request, gave an assumed name, under which she was 
thought to have before communicated. 

In this account of Foster's mediumship, the purpose has been not to 
startle the reader with - sensational statements or comical delineations 
but, in as clear and impartial a manner as possible, to 

SET FORTH THE FACTS 

just as they appeared to the representatives of the Avalanche. Mr. 
Foster does not seem to court newspaper favor. When the writer 
presented himself to Mr. Foster as the representative of the great and 
good Avalanche, for the purpose of giving the public the simple truth 



THE SALEM SEER. 4 1 

respecting him, that worthy replied in substance : "I have but little 
regard for newspaper men, but, if you have a five-dollar bill in your 
pocket, we can proceed to business." A significant motion towards 
your reporter's left-hand waistcoat-pocket settled the medium's scruples 
on the main point, and after a hearty laugh to business we went. 

\Tke Memphis Dally Appeal. ] 

The parlor was handsomely and neatly furnished, and Professor Fos- 
ter was clad in a plain comfortable business suit of tweed. Those 
who expected to see the room hung round with old v/orm-eaten tapes- 
try, with cabalistic figures liberally embroidered all over it, and the 
magician himself clothed in a long garment of parti-colors, with many 
a diamond, cross and crook, like the magi of old, were disappointed, 
for everything was disclosed to view, and a simple damask cover only 
was on the table, around which the company seated themselves. It 
projected a few inches over the edges, and Mr. Foster said, in order 
that there might not be even the slightest shade of deception, he would 
strip off the cover; but one of the company, who is in the habit of 
using a little slang now and then, exclaimed: "Oh, not at all, Mr. 
Foster; we have come here to give you a good, 

SQUARE DEAL, 

and we wish you to give us the same." 

Mr. Foster — I have nothing mysterious about me. I don't receive 
my visitors in a long magician's gown, to frighten and astonish 
them. 

Mr. Brown — Can you answer any question that I may ask you ? 

Mr. Foster — No, sir. I don't pretend to do that. You surely would 
not go to a physician, if you were suffering from a dangerous disease, 
and ask him if he could cure you, with the expectation that he would 
say "Yes." He would tell you he would do the best he could for 
you; and I will communicate to you whatever is communicated to 
me. 

A long- seance followed. I will quote only the last test 
<^iven : 

o 

Mr. Foster — Here is the spirit of Maggie — she wants to communi- 
cate with you. 

Mr. Robinson — I don't know anything about her. I never knew a 
girl of that name. 



4 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

Mr. Brown — Oh, that's all right. I know her. She is an old 

sweetheart of mine. Send her to me. 

Maggie having been safely sent over the table to Brown, Mr. Rob- 
inson was particular to know what disease his brother Bob died of. 

Mr. Foster — His death was accidental, was it not ? 

Mr. Robinson — No, sir ; it was not. 

Mr. Foster — The spirit says the death was accidental ; but if you 
write the names of several diseases, 

THE SPIRIT 

will pick out the right one as you touch the letter on this alphabetical 
card. 

Mr. Robinson did so, and at the letter "S" three knocks were 
given, the word "sun-stroke " pointed out from among the list of " dis- 
eases," and the French term, coup de so/a/, found written on the back 
of the paper. There was an error in the spelling of the French, but 
as the supposed writer was a Scotchman, the error was easily accounted 
for, and there was a smile all round the table at Robinson contending 
that sun-stroke was a disease instead of an accident. 

OTHER MANIFESTATIONS 

followed even more wonderful, striking, and startling than those re- 
ferred to above, and the seance, which lasted over an hour, was 
brought to a close. During the entire time Mr. Foster displayed the 
greatest bonhomie. He was courteous, polite and affable, and seemed 
to enjoy the perplexity and wonder of his visitors when anything par- 
ticularly strange was revealed. 

Business appeared to be particularly brisk yesterday afternoon, as 
over a couple of dozen cards were brought to the room during the 
seance from parties who wished to peep into the spiritual world, and 
Mr. Foster informed his visitors that every hour of his stay in Mem- 
phis was engaged up till the time of his departure for New Orleans 
on Monday. 

Tests like the foregoing were given by Mr. Foster 
every day, and apparently without any effort. Sitting 
with Governor Wood, of Utah Territory, the Governor 
asked what was the cause of his mother's death. 
Foster replied immediately, "Cancer," and wrote her 
full name Margaret Wood, 



THE SALEM SEER. 43 

Another gentleman asks of his spirit friend, "Of 
what did you die ? " Mr. Foster in a few moments 
replied, "The spirit says to me, ' Smothered in a coal 
mine.' " 

Another spirit came and said, " I thank you for being 
so kind to me when I was sick and dying. You 
smoothed my pillow. It will not be necessary for me 
to give you my name, for you know me." The gentle- 
man said he did. 

At another time a lady was sitting at the table, when 
a rap came at the door, and a strange gentleman 
walked in. Mr. Foster then said to the lady, " Why 
you two are connected. I should judge that you were 
brother and sister. I saw a light go out of each and 
unite." The gentleman replied, "You are quite correct, 
we are brother and sister." 

I remember one day Foster gave most of his com- 
munications in German. It was upon that day that 
two ladies and a gentleman wrote living names and 
false names, trying in every way to confuse the medium. 
But he came out victorious, nevertheless. He said to 
one of these ladies, a spirit comes to you here whose 
name you have not written. He says he was shot in 
the leg. Both ladies with an incredulous smile said 
they knew no such person, but in a few moments Fos- 
ter gave the name. One of the ladies then remem- 
bered, and remembered so forcibly that she burst into 
tears. 

While we were at Denver, a gentleman called from 
Golden, Colo. He brought a sealed envelope, with a 
name written inside. The gentleman said he brought 
it as a test, as the name was written by another party, 
he not knowing it. Foster wrote it out at once, " Mary 
Robinson." The gentleman opened the envelope in 
our presence, and found it to be correct. 



44 THE SALEM SEER. 

General Chain asked Mr. Foster for a communica- 
tion from Rufus Choate. Mr. Foster immediately gave 
him six lines in Latin from one of Rufus Choate's 
speeches. Foster had no knowledge of Latin. 

The day before Mr. Foster left for his summer home 
in Salem, Mass., he purchased two empty champagne 
baskets for the purpose of packing therein his extra 
luggage. We were both awakened that night by cer- 
tain scratching noises. Mr. Foster said he was quite 
sure the noises proceeded from the spirits. I told him 
I thought not, that it was undoubtedly rats. I rapped 
on the bed, and shoo-shooed at the rats. We then 
endeavored to sleep, but in a few moments there were 
noises as of scratching on the carpet. He asked me, 
as usual on such occasions, to light the gas, as it is a 
peculiar fact that these manifestations do not occur in 
the light. As I felt tired and sleepy, I did not do so. 
In a few moments, however, there was a terrible com- 
motion. The champagne baskets commenced running 
around the room. They flew up in the air, crashing 
against each other, and what seemed to be electric 
sparks appeared in many places in the room ; and in 
shorter time than it takes to relate it, all the chairs were 
piled upon our bed. No harm was done, however, 
and I was then quite willing to light the gas, which we 
kept burning for the remainder of the night. I said to 
Mr. Foster that I did not think it was very kind of the 
spirits to come and annoy us in that way. He said 
they were frolicsome spirits, and wished to come back 
and have a little sport. I suppose Andrew Jackson 
Davis would call them Diaka, or evil spirits. I give 
these experiences exactly as they occurred. 

The next day we left for Salem. Mr. Foster's father 
was a particularly kind and pleasing man, without 



THE SALEM SEER. 45 

guile, and in his younger days followed the sea. We 
were sitting together one morning under the large tree 
which flourished in their yard. After passing the com- 
pliments of the day, he remarked that he had passed a 
bad night, and had not slept well. I inquired what 
was the matter ? He replied that Aunt Bessie had 
annoyed him and mother (his wife) all night. I re- 
plied that I had heard Charles speak frequently of Aunt 
Bessie, but I had supposed she had died some years 
ago. "Oh, yes," he said, "but she keeps coming back 
at night, goes in and out of our room, pulls open the 
bureau drawers, and fusses over her old things." He 
continued, "We have asked her repeatedly to keep 
away, and not disturb us while we were sleeping, but 
every little while she comes back and makes a night of 
it." Very innocently he said to me, " Y)oyou not see 
spirits?" "Why no," I said, "certainly not." He 
replied that he did, and that he supposed everyone did. 
That his family had ever since he could remember, 
and that he did not suppose his family differed in that 
respect from other families. I certainly think he was 
perfectly sincere, and that he saw visions. His wife, 
Mrs. Foster, mother of Charles, told me she had talked 
with spirits all her life, and that her mother and father 
also conversed with them. She said when Charles was 
a baby that she was too poor to hire a girl, and having 
to do her own work her spirit friends often came to her 
assistance, and that they had often rocked Charlies 
cradle by the hour. To hear them speak of the other 
life, and of their communications with those who had 
passed to the other shore, made the intercourse be- 
tween the two worlds seem as real as between Europe 
and America. 

While I was associated with Mr. Foster, we lost no 



4 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

opportunity to investigate all new phases of these 
phenomena. The majority we considered fraudulent. 
Spirit photography seemed to us a thin fraud. Mr. 
Mumbler, of Boston, had fine apartments, and seemed 
to be a pleasant man. We had our photographs taken 
there. Back of each of us appeared a well-known 
actress, which of course was no test ; and, as plenty of 
photographers could produce equally as good or better 
"spirit" pictures, we came to the conclusion that this 
phase was not worthy of any further attention. 

Mr. Foster, Mr. George Chase and myself went to 
Moravia, N.Y., as soon as we heard of the phenomena 
which was taking place at Mr. Keeler's house. Each 
of us received some very convincing tests. We felt 
quite sure we were not known to Mr. Keeler's house- 
hold. A plain board cabinet was built up in a corner 
of the room. Miss Andrews, who I believe was a 
former servant girl, was the medium who sat within 
the cabinet. There was a small aperture where the 
spirits were supposed to show their faces. A dim light 
was kept burning during the seances. This particular 
seance was given at two o'clock in the afternoon. 
There were about ten of us, from different parts of the 
country. We sat in a semicircle, similar to a minstrel 
band. As the spirits were announced, and were sup- 
posed to appear at this aperture, we asked around, 
commencing with Bones at the end, "Is it for me?" 
"Is it for me?" and so on, until we came to the 
Tambourine end. A particularly good test which came 
to me was in this wise. A woman's hand was thrust 
through the aperture, and when it came my turn to 
say "Is it for me?" there were three raps, which indi- 
cated yes. I said I thought not, as it had no 
significance. Then we all asked around again, and 



THE SALEM SEER. 



47 



when it came my turn, I said, "Is it for me?" Again 
there were three raps, and the medium said, "It is 
your mother's hand. Do you not recognize it ? " Then 
an almost forgotten incident came to my mind, and I 
said, " Yes," and asked if the spirit would show plainer 
with her hand what she meant to signify. She did so by 
attempting to straighten out the hand, while the third 
finger remained bent towards the palm. A gold ring 
appeared on one finger. My mother when a baby 
crawled into a fireplace and burned her hand so that 
one finger always remained bent over. While her 
hand was closed it did not show, and while she could 
straighten all the other fingers, this finger remained 
bent. On the same hand she wore a gold ring. As 
this circumstance was not known to any person living 
outside of our family, I considered it remarkable. What 
strengthens this test is the fact that I did not know 
which was the burned finger. When I returned to New 
York, my sisters informed me that it was the third 
finger, as above stated. What purported to be the 
spirit of Louis Gottschalk came to Mr. Foster. They 
had a long conversation, which was also satisfactory. 
Many different faces appeared at the aperture, and 
the spirits were supposed to materialize inside of 
the cabinet. That part we very much doubted, and I 
doubt it to-day more than ever, as all attempts at 
materialization which I have investigated since that 
time lead me to believe that it is all a transparent 
humbug, and I think the houses which carry on this 
deception and obtain money under false pretenses, 
deceiving honest men and women, ought to be closed 
by the police. If while some of these supposed spirits 
were dancing around the room, purporting to be loved 
relatives, a bullet from a pistol should be put into their 



4 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

forms, I think it would prove a convincing test that 
they were not disembodied spirits, but the lowest type 
of humanity. 

These evil-faced Jezebels, who sell their tricks so 
shamefully for a dollar or two, remind me of Salter's 
poem : 

GRETCHEN. 

Near the cathedral door, as black and base 
As some foul wretch loved by a demon crew, 
Squatting in filth, a weird hag met my view, 

The mark of bagnios stamped upon her face. 

But in the beldame's wrinkles I could trace 
A vestige of dead beauty glimmering through ; 
Therefore I asked, " What sombre Fates pursue 

Thy life, and make thee peddle in this place ? " 

She answered : " 1 was Marguerite ! For gold 
I have unnumbered men since Faust enticed, 
And given to each my gladdened kiss of sin. 

And now, to warm my withered flesh so old, 
I sell these images of saints and Christ, 
To buy myself a penny's worth of gin." 

Although I have not paid any attention to the dif- 
ferent phases of the phenomena for several years, I am 
still deeply interested in it, and would be willing to 
spend time and money in its investigation, could I find 
a few suitable persons to join me. I often hear of such 
men as the Rev. Mr. Hepworth, Rev. Heber Newton 
and Mr. Frank Carpenter as being interested in these 
phenomena, and I should be very much pleased to 
communicate with any honest investigator in regard to 
forming a committee to devote one evening out of 
the week to the study of this subject. " Life is short," 
and " we are passing away," knowing but little of this 
life, and less of any other. 



THE SALEM SEER. 49 

As there is no one who has ever seen the century 
plant bloom the second time, so no one has ever known 
but one Charlie Foster. It is not surprising that after a 
few weeks' acquaintance with him, Bulwer found him- 
self supplied with new material for a book. "A Strange 
Story," indeed. Foster stood apart from all men, dis- 
tinct and alone. It is true, to a great extent, that human- 
ity is alike, but I wish to convey the idea that while he 
was like others he was also peculiarly unlike all others. 
He was extravagantly dual. He was not only Dr. 
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he represented half-a-dozen 
different Jekylls and Hydes. He was strangely gifted, 
and on the other hand he was wofully deficient. He 
was an unbalanced genius, and at times, I should say, 
insane. He had a heart so large indeed that it took in 
the world : tears for the afflicted ; money for the 
poor ; the chords of his heart were touched by every 
sigh. At other times, his heart shrunk up until it dis- 
appeared. He would become pouty, and with the 
petulance of a child would abuse his best friends. He 
wore out many of his friends, as an unbreakable horse 
does its owner. No harness fitted Foster. He was 
not vicious, but absolutely uncontrollable. He would 
go his own way, which way was often the wrong way. 
Like a child he seemed to have no forethought. He 
seemed to live for to-day, caring nothing for to-morrow. 
If it were possible, he did exactly as he wished to do, 
regardless of consequences. He would take no one's 
advice, simply because he could not. He seemed 
impervious to the opinions of others, and appar- 
ently yielded to every desire ; but after all he did 
not abuse himself much, as he continued in perfect 
health until the final breaking up. When asked, " How 
is your health ?" his favorite expression was, " Excel- 

4 



5 o THE SALEM SEER. 

lent. I am simply bursting with physical health." The 
same dual nature showed itself in his work. Some 
days he would sit at the table all day, and far into the 
night, under tremendous mental strain. He would do 
this day after day, and night after night. Then days 
and weeks would come when he would do absolutely 
nothing. Turn hundreds of dollars away and dis- 
appoint the people, without any apparent reason, save 
he was in the mood for loafing. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



51 



CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Foster's aunt, who lives in Salem, Mass., sent 
me the following thrilling article, published in a Bos- 
ton paper, Dec. 28th, 1885. I remember the seance as 
though it occurred yesterday. It is aj true as starlight. 

AN AWFUL VISION 

CONJURED UP BY FOSTER IN A SOUTHERN HOTEL — HE DESCRIBES 
THE TERRIBLE EEATH OF A MAN ALONE ON THE PLAINS — A 
STRANGE SEANCE BY THE MAN OF MANY WEIRD SECRETS. 

New York, Dec. 27. — I knew Charles Foster, the medium, who 
died last week, very well indeed, says a writer in the New York World. 
I spent one winter — that of 1873-4, I think — down South. I was 
traveling from town to town, and every once in a while I found that I 
was putting up at the same hotel with Foster. We used to meet under 
such conditions every evening in the bar-room. He was an excep- 
tionally sociable fellow, who never "talked shop,' 'and, without drink- 
ing very much, loved to be convivial with cheerful company. He 
was on a professional tour, giving seances at five dollars a head, and 
even in the impoverished South thought nothing of $200 or $300 as 
a day's income. 

While we were talking one night, Foster and I, there came a knock 
at the door. Bartlett arose and opened it, disclosing as he did so two 
young men plainly dressed, of marked provincial aspect. They were 
ordinary middle-class Southerners. I saw at once that they were 
clients, and arose to go. Foster restrained me. 

"Sit down," he said. "I'll try and get rid of them, for I'm not in 
the humor to be disturbed. In any case they are only commonplace 
chaps, and I'll soon be through with them." 

I stayed, and it was the first and only seance of Foster's that I, in 
my character of unbeliever, ever took part in. 

By this time the young men had ascertained from the courteous 
Bartlett that the great medium was disengaged, and they entered. 



5 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

Foster hinted that he had no particular inclination to gratify them 
then and there, but they protested that they had come some distance, 
and, with a characteristically good-natured smile, he gave in. What 
followed I shall describe as minutely as I can, for the whole seance is 
to this day as vividly impressed upon my memory as if it had taken 
place only yesterday. 

In the room I have pictured Foster sat as far from the table with the 
marble top as two feet at least. Bartlett had returned to his sofa and 
to his news paper. I sat by the door and the two young men, with 
awe-stricken faces, sat by the table, one of them resting his arm on it. 
Foster lolled back in his chair, voluptuously watching the smoke of his 
cigar. His left hand was in his trousers pocket, his right was free and 
toying constantly with his mustache. One leg was thrown over the 
other. On the table were several long, narrow strips of paper, about 
the width of the margin of a newspaper, and a couple of short pencils. 
The young men looked furtively round the room and at Foster. It 
was easy to see that one of them 

WAS INCLINED TO UNBELIEF. 

" Now," said Foster, in his usual indolent manner, " it will be nec- 
essary for you (to the skeptic) to think of some person, now in the 
spirit world, in whom you have confidence. Ah ! as I speak to you 
some one has arrived. It is a woman — perhaps your mother. She is 
going to communicate with you." 

And at that instant there came a rap upon the table, apparently in 
the lower edge of the marble, so loud and so distinct that three of us 
started — the young strangers and myself. 

" Take this card," proceeded Foster, his eyes shut and his expres- 
sion one of delicious drowsiness. "It contains all the letters of the 
alphabet. Spell out, letter by letter, in silence, the name of any spirit 
you may expect." 

Then followed what to me seemed a most extraordinary incident of 
telegraphy. As fast as the young man struck the right letter an invis- 
ible something smote the marble with a ringing tap. 

" Do you recognize the spirit? " inquired Foster, still drowsy and 
uninterested. 

"It's my aunt, sir," replied the countryman, very white, but with 
a resolute face, as became a brave young fellow who was bound to 
stand any revelation, no matter how tremendous. 

« ' You are sure of it ? " 

"That's her name." 



THE SALEM SEER. 



53 



"She is standing between us looking at you. She is tall and thin, 
dark hair, mixed with gray, very wrinkled, and her smile is very 
gentle." 

" It's my aunt ! " cried the lad, with eyes dilated. 

"Take one of those slips of paper," continued Foster, twisting his 
cigar in his mouth. "Write on it whatever question you want to 
ask of her. Then roll it up in your fingers as small as possible and 
give it to me." 

It took the young man a few minutes to think out and then com- 
pose his question — a task in which he was aided by his friend. Then 
he rolled it up into a ball about the size of a pea, and handed it to the 
medium. Foster took it indifferently, held it against his forehead 
just as he received it, and without a moment's delay, but in rather 
hesitating voice, said : 

" You have asked your aunt whether in her judgment it would be a 
safe speculation for you to go as a partner in the butcher business with 
So-and-So (mentioning a name) in Algiers." Algiers, by the way, is 
the Brooklyn of New Orleans. 

"Yes, sir," gasped the young man. 

" Your aunt says to you in reply," drawled Foster, "that she does 
not like to interfere with your plans, but you must be very careful in 
your dealings with So-and-So. His reputation is a very bad one, and 
he has cheated everybody he ever was in business with." 

A flock of other questions and answers followed, all expressed in the 
same way. The more he replied the drowsier and more indolent grew 
Foster. I thought he was tired of the interview and was feigning 
sleep to end it. All of a sudden 

HE SPRANG TO HIS FEET 

with such an expression of horror and consternation as an actor play- 
ing Macbeth would have given a good deal to imitate. His eyes 
glared, his breast heaved, his hands clenched. It seemed as if some 
horrible spectacle fascinated him. I could have sworn he saw a raw 
and bloody spectre standing beside the young man from Algiers. The 
lad, on his part, arose stupidly a moment after, his eyes fixed with an 
anxious stare on the medium. 

"Why did you come here? " cried Foster, in. a wail that seemed to 
come from the bottom of his soul. "Why do you come here to tor- 
ment me with such a sight ? Oh, God ! It's horrible ! It's horri- 
ble!" And he clasped his two hands before his face, shuddering as 
if to shut out the vision which dismayed him, but which none other of 
us beheld. 



54 



THE SALEM SEER. 



Incredulous as I was, the sincerity of his distress troubled me. 
Even on Bartlett it had such an effect that he dropped his paper and 
sat bolt upright. As for the two young men, they fairly trembled. 

"It is your father I see! " cried Foster, in the same wailing tone 
of anguish and repulsion. " He died fearfully ! He died fearfully ! 
I Te was in Texas — on a horse — with cattle. He was alone. It is the 
prairies ! Alone ! The horse fell ! He was under it ! His thigh 
was broken — horribly broken ! The horse ran away and left him ! 
He lay there stunned ! Then he came to his senses ! Oh ! his thigh 
was dreadful ! Such agony ! My God ! Such agony ! " 

Foster fairly screamed at this. The younger of the men from 
Algiers broke into violent sobs. His- companion wept, too, and the 
pair of them clasped hands. Bartlett looked on concerned. As for 
me, I was astounded. 

"He was four days dying — four days dying— of starvation and 
thirst," Foster went on, as if deciphering some terrible hieroglyphs 
written on the air. "His thigh swelled to the size of his body. 
Clouds of flies settled on him — flies and vermin — and he chewed his 
own arm and drank his own blood. He died mad. And my God ! 
he crawled three miles in those four days ! Man ! man ! that's how 
your father died ! ' ' 

So saying, with a great sob, Foster dropped into his chair, his cheeks 
purple, and tears running down them in rivers. The younger man from 
Algiers burst into a wild cry of grief and sank upon the neck of his 
friend. He, too, was sobbing as if his own heart would break. Bartlett 
stood over Foster, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. I sat 
stock still in my chair, the vivid scene of human anguish and despera- 
tion which had been conjured up slowly vanishing like the illusion of 
a magic lantern. 

"It's true," said the younger man's friend; "his father was a 
stock-raiser in Texas, and after he had been missing from his drove 
f >r over a week, they found him dead and swollen with his leg broken . 
They tracked him a good distance from where he must have fallen. 
15 it nobody ever heard till now how he died." 

Perhaps those two young men are still alive in New Orleans. I 
believe that Bartlett survives. If they read this they will affirm that 
plainly and with absolute accuracy I have described the only seance I 
ever saw conducted by Charles Foster. 

Mr. Foster was passionately fond of poetry, music 
and flowers. He was intimately acquainted with 



THE SALEM SEER. 55 

Alice and Phoebe Cary, and was always particularly 
happy after being" in their society. He seemed to 
take delight, and derive a great deal of comfort quot- 
ing from their poems. "The Window Just Over the 
Street " was an especial favorite. He was also ac- 
quainted with Longfellow, Walt Whitman, W r illiam 
Winter, George Arnold, and many other poets. 

His rooms were often visited by musical people. 
He was much attached to, and very intimate with, Ole 
Bull, Louis Gottschalk, and other musical celebrities. 
I remember a most delightful visit of one week, at the 
home of Ole Bull in Maine. Ole Bull was certainly 
one of the most charming men who ever smiled on 
humanity ; and pleasantly do I hear the music of his 
violin whenever my thoughts go back to that cosily 
furnished house of his. The angels seemed to hover 
near, when the small hours of the morning found him 
still playing "The Carnival of Venice." 

Flowers fascinated Foster. He seemed to know in- 
tuitively the family of every bud and blossom, every 
leaf and shrub. He was a born botanist. During his 
lifetime he spent a small fortune in flowers. It seemed 
to be impossible for him to pass a florist's window, or 
a stand on the street where flowers were for sale, with- 
out purchasing. He almost daily sent them to friends, 
and his apartments were ever full of blossoms and 
their perfume. 

One night in June we started to call on a lady. June 
roses were at their best. Foster purchased two rare 
specimens, one white, the other red. Finding the lady 
out, he twisted them around the door-knob. We called 
again the next day, found the lady at home, and 
the roses tenderly cared for. She said she had been 
trying to walk off the blues the evening before when 



5 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

we called, and upon her return those two roses greeted 
her, and made her feel quite happy and cheerful ; and 
that she immediately dictated these lines to them : 

Two roses sweet, and nothing more, 
Showed their fresh faces at my door, 
Bright as the rosy dreams of yore — 

Two roses- white and red ; 
More preeious far than gold could be, 
Or gleaming pearls from deeps of sea — 
The cheer they whispered lovingly, 

And these the words they said : 

I grew so, spake the one of white, 
All slowly through the pallid night, 
A-tremble at the fear of blight, 

A- waiting for the dew. 
And I, I heard the red one say, 
Bloomed out despite the autumn day, 

And little sunshine knew. 

Take courage, heart ; somewhere I know, 
Flower-wise, we'll to perfection blow — 
Be purified, expand and grow 

Inside the jasper-gate. 
Be patient yet awhile, nor pine, 
Though loss and grief and tears be thine ; 
Make this thy motto, heart of mine : 

I, like the roses, wait ! 

While spending- an evening with Mr. Foster, at No. 
29 Fourth Street, a Mr. Farnsworth called, who was then 
President of the New York Society of Spiritualists. He 
said that the evening before he had had a discussion 
with some skeptical friends, who thought that Mr. Fos- 
ter in some way opened the slips of paper on which 
questions and names were written. That they wished 
to bet any amount that they could so fold the questions 
that Mr. Foster could not answer them. They said 
they had finally concluded to reduce the test to one 



THE SALEM SEEK. 5 7 

written name of a dead person, and eleven other pieces 
of paper should contain blanks. These twelve slips of 
paper were crushed into the shape of bullets, then 
placed in tin-foil, and rolled and re-rolled, until they had 
the appearance of ordinary bird-shot. Mr. Farns- 
worth took these twelve bullets from his pocket, held 
them in the palm of his hand, and asked Mr. Foster if 
he thought he could get an impression of the name. Mr. 
Foster said, as usual, that he would try. The twelve 
bullets were placed in the centre of the table. Taking- up 
one after another, he asked, " Is this the name?" One 
rap came as he picked up each of them, until suddenly 
three raps came. Holding a bullet between his fingers 
he said, "This is the bullet which contains the name." 
After repeating the letters of the alphabet, he said, "I 
have it, and will write it out for you." He did so, 
asking Mr. Farnsworth if it were correct. Mr. Farns- 
worth said that part of the test was that he was not to 
know the name. He then left, taking the bullets and 
the name, and he reported the next day that the name 
was given correctly. 

This test reminds me of a like one which hap- 
pened in Austin, Texas. I stepped into a grocery 
store to purchase some trifle, and the parties, knowing 
that I was with Mr. Foster, asked me a good many 
questions. Something was said which reminded me of 
the Farnsworth test, and I related the circumstance to 
the proprietor of the store. When, an hour or two 
later, I returned to the hotel, Foster seemed quite 
excited, and said he wished I would stop going around 
town putting up jobs on him — as he called it. I did 
not know to what he referred and told him so. He 
said that two gentlemen had just left who brought some 
questions wrapped in sheet-iron, and that when they 



5 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

left they said a young man had called at their store 
and said that he, Mr. Foster, could answer questions, 
even if they were rolled up inside of a bullet. Then 
it dawned upon me that these were the same people to 
whom, a short time before, I had innocently mentioned 
the test given to Mr. Farnsworth. Mr. Foster earnestly 
requested me not to mention those kinds of severe tests, 
as it was much harder work to answer questions out- 
side of the regular straight folded slips. 

One might very pertinently ask, what benefit, what 
permanent good, are all these different manifestations ? 
Very little.. I should say, and any one grounded in a 
satisfactory religious faith I should advise not to 
investigate. After all, the most gifted medium's power 
is very limited. 

Sweden borg, probably the greatest medium that ever 
lived, has given to the world, through his writings, 
some beautiful ideas, although his description of an 
after-life seems visionary and unreal. Many writers 
have endeavored to prove his predictions false, and say 
that strong coffee had more to do with his visions than 
disembodied spirits. Still his power is felt for good 
to-day, and will be long after we have passed away. 
To me one of his most beautiful conceptions is the 
dress of spirit forms in the other life. Namely, that 
each spirit will be dressed according to the perfection 
attained here. Therefore, the garments of a queen may 
differ very much from her earthly robes ; and one poorly 
clad here may be exquisitely clothed there. The purer 
and loftier the thoughts, the richer and more beautiful 
the garments. By their clothes ye shall know them ! 

All countries of the past and present have had their 
supposed or would-be prophets, which to me is of 
doubtful quality and quantity. A fulfilled prophecy, 



THE SALEM SEER, 



59 



like a first prize in a lottery, is heralded around the 
world, while the failures and blanks are not heard from. 
I question whether Foster, or any other medium, ever 
predicted anything- of value as regards the future. If 
in any large degree it were possible, it would seem a 
violation of law either natural or spiritual. If by con- 
sulting a medium one could procure direct information 
as to the horse which would come out first in the race, 
what stocks would advance in Wall Street which number 
would draw the prize, it would certainly seem unjust to 
that part of the community who had no knowledge of 
spiritual mediums. Or, if doctors from another life 
could impart their science to ignorant mediums where- 
by they could cure the sick, it would hardly be fair to 
the living medical profession. Is it better to know 
aught of the future ? Have we not care enough with 
the present ? 

Mr. Foster's power was astonishing because unusual, 
but it was limited. The entire day long, he could com- 
municate the names of the dead to living relatives 
and friends, writing pleasant and comforting messages 
to them, giving time of death, cause of death, etc. 
Although I have received many remarkable tests, and 
what to the ordinary spiritualist would be proof positive 
of direct communication between this and the spirit life, 
I am still skeptical. The communications were never 
decided enough. It seems to me, if it were true, such 
a great truth would be known and accepted by all 
mankind. Spirit telephone and telegraphy seem to 
work unsatisfactorily — a thick veil seems to hang 
between. I feel that there is a gulf, a barrier, a dense 
fog, that will not dissipate. I am still waiting for the 
sunshine to appear and disperse the clouds, making 
these mysteries clear. 



60 THE SALEM SEER. 

Speaking- of mediums not being able to foretell the 
future brings to my mind an occurrence which might 
be considered a contradiction. It was an incident 
which would be calculated to make a lasting impression. 
We met an impulsive, dashing young man, by the 
name of Armijo, at Charpiot's Hotel, in Denver, Col., 
where Mr. Foster was giving- seances. He was a 
Spaniard, I think, very wealthy, and was called "The 
Sheep King of New Mexico." One night he and sev- 
eral of his friends had quite a lengthy seance with Mr. 
Foster. He was inclined to be a little abusive, and, 
although possibly not intending to be so, was almost 
insulting. He intimated the whole thing was a fraud ; 
and finally said he would bet a large amount that Mr. 
Foster could not tell anything that was not in his own 
mind ; could not tell anything which the future would 
verify. Mr. Foster had borne with him very patiently, 
but showed that he was somewhat vexed. Suddenly he 
said, rather excitedly, "lean tell you something that 
will happen to you which is very painful, if I choose, 
but I do not care to give you pain/' Armijo imme- 
diately defied him and said, ' ' That is all stuff. " Finally 
Foster said, "Well, young man, you will blow your 
brains out inside of three months" And sure enough, 
in a few weeks, picking up the Denver Rocky Mountain 
News " we read as follows : 

SAD SUICIDE. 

P. C. Armijo, the Sheep Owner, 

Suicides. 

He Puts a Bullet Through His Heart. 

Love the Cause of the Rash Act. 

THE END OF A PROMISING LIFE. 



THE SALEM SEER. 6 1 

It is my opinion in this instance that Mr. Foster 
made a mistake. He should have controlled his tem- 
per, as I am quite sure no good ever comes from giv- 
ing vent to such impressions. And, although after the 
seance the young man laughed and ridiculed the predic- 
tion, still is it not possible that it might have preyed 
upon his excitable mind until he became crazed? Or 
was his suicide the natural course of events? The 
account in the paper referred to the "Foster prophecy." 



62 THE SALEM SEER. 



CHAPTER VI. 

While I was connected with Mr. Foster I know of no 
one seance which created such a sensation, and the 
reports of which were so widely copied, as that given 
to Mr. C. E. De Long-, of San Francisco, an extended 
account of which appeared in the San Francisco 
Chronicle, of Jan. 23, 1874. The heading- reads : "A 
Windfall from Heaven." I quote the following: 

Next day the gentleman met his friend, the Hon. Chas. E. De 
Long, who had just then returned from Japan. To him he told his 
remarkable experience of the day before. De Long laughed at him 
for his apparent credulity, and scouted the idea that spirits had any- 
thing to do with the message. Nettled at this, the gentleman invited 
Mr. De Long to go with him to see Foster and judge for himself. 
That night they both, in company with Howard Coit, called at the 
Grand Hotel, and were shown into Foster's rooms. Mr. De Long 
was wholly unknown to Foster. They all sat down to the table, and 
after Foster had smoked awhile at his cigar, he said : "I can only get 
one message to-night, and that is for a person named Ida. Do either 
of you know who Ida is ? " 

Mr. De Long looked at Foster with rather a startled look, and said, 
" Well, yes, I rather think I do. My wife's name is Ida." 

"Well," said Foster, "then this message is for her, and it is impor- 
tant. But she will have to come here and receive it." 

WHAT THE SPIRITS TOLD MRS. DE LONG. 

This was just enough to excite De Long's curiosity, and after en- 
deavoring in vain to get Foster to reveal the message to him, he con- 
sented to bring his wife the next night to receive the important com- 
munication in person. Accordingly the next evening the same two, 
accompanied by Mrs. De Long, were ushered into Foster's parlor. 
They were soon seated around the table, waiting eagerly for the spirits 
to arrive. After Foster had smoked for several minutes in silence, he 



THE SALEM SEER. 63 

suddenly said: "The same message comes to me. It is for Ida. 
This is the lady, is it ? " he asked, as of the spirit. "Oh, you will write 
the message, will you? Well, all right," and with this he took up a 
pen and dashed off the following : 

To my daughter Ida — Ten years ago I entrusted a large sum of 
money to Thomas Madden to invest for me in certain lands. After 
my death he failed to account for the investment to my executors. 
The money was invested, and twelve hundred and fifty acres of land 
were bought, and one-half of this land now belongs to you. I paid 
Madden on account of my share of the purchase $650. He must be 

made to make a settlement. 

Your father, 

Vineyard. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. De Long sat and heard this communication read 
with astonished faces. Mrs. De Long knew that in life her father had 
had business dealings with Mr. Madden, but to what extent, or even 
the nature of them, she did not know. She was terribly frightened at 
the denouement, for she knew that Foster did not know who she was, 
nor who her father might have been, and when the communication 
came in so remarkable a way, the effect upon the whole party may be 
better imagined than described. 

MR. MADDEN COMES DOWN. 

Mr. De Long had just enough faith in the correctness of Mrs. De 
Long's communication to see what there was in it anyway. So the 
next day he called on Mr. Madden at the Occidental Hotel. With- 
out saying what especial reason he had for asking the question, he 
asked Mr. Madden if there was not yet some unsettled business between 
himself and the estate of the late Mr. Vineyard. Mr. Madden thought 
for a moment, and then he said there was. He said several years ago 
he and Mr. Vineyard had purchased a tract of land together, and their 
interest was yet undivided. The land had increased and was still in- 
creasing enormously in value, and he supposed Mr. Vineyard's daugh- 
ter desired to let her interest lie untouched, which was the reason 
why the matter had never been settled up. Besides, she had been 
absent a long time from the country, and was not here to have the 
matter settled. When informed that Mrs. De Long had only just 
learned of this investment of her father's, Mr. Madden expressed much 
surprise. He said he supposed she and her husband and the execu- 



64 THE SALEM SEER. 

tors knew all about it, but were simply letting the matter rest for the 
property to increase in value. Mr. Madden then said that he was 
ready to make a settlement at any time. This was readily assented 
to by Mr. De Long, and accordingly, on Saturday last, Mr. Madden 
transferred a deed for 625 acres of the land to Mrs. De Long, her heirs 
and assigns forever. Having done this, Mr. Madden offered the lady 
$18,000 for the property, but, having been informed that it is worth at 
least $25,000, she declined to sell. 

Meanwhile Foster is overrun with people anxious to interview their 
deceased parents, for the purpose of finding out if the old folks are 
quite sure that their estates have been fully and properly settled. 

A gentleman, accompanied by two ladies dressed in 
deep mourning-, visited Mr. Foster, and not wishing to 
give their names, the gentleman introduced the elder 
lady as Mrs. Bereaved, and the younger lady as Mrs. 
Lately Bereaved. The seance had only continued a 
short time when the elder lady said, ''Sarah Jane, 
behave yourself, and stop hunching me." "Why, 
mother, I am not hunching you, I am hunched myself. ' 
Hundreds have testified that while attending ih j 
seances, they have been touched as by a hand, on 
the forehead, on the shoulder or knee. Was it imagina- 
tion or a fact ? 

Mr. Foster could give a communication in any 
language. He would make mistakes, speak slowly, 
and sometimes not very accurately, but could in nearly 
all cases be understood by the questioner. In this 
connection, I remember one remarkable experience 
which occurred in New York City. Two gentlemen 
called on Mr. Foster, and inquired if he could answer 
some questions in a foreign language. He replied that 
he had usually been able to do so, and if the gentle- 
men would kindly be seated and write their questions 
on slips of paper, he would see what the result would 
be. I am quite sure that the mental strain was very 



THE SALEM SEER. 65 

severe on Mr. Foster daring this seance, for beads of 
perspiration could be seen on his forehead frequently. 
It was quite a lengthy seance, and he answered numer- 
ous questions, but in a language which he said he had 
never before spoken. Consequently he pronounced 
many of the words with some difficulty. The gentle- 
men were surprised and delighted. In justice to Mr. 
Foster, and to show what a wonderful test he had given 
them, one of the gentlemen made this explanation : 
Some years ago, he was shipwrecked, and drifted to 
an unknown island, where he was treated kindly by 
the natives, and where he was compelled to remain for 
three years before being rescued. It was there he 
learned this strange language. A young native, who 
was his most intimate companion, died a few weeks 
before he was rescued, and it was the spirit of this 
young man from whom he was supposed to have had 
the communication, and as there was not another man 
in New York City, or in any part of Europe, who knew 
a word of the language, it certainly was a capital test, 
and shows, it seems to me conclusively, that no fraud 
could have been practiced. And shows also, beyond 
a doubt, that there is such a thing as genuine medium- 
istic phenomena, which has not in the past, and cannot 
at present, be satisfactorily explained. 

A man by the name of Goldberg, a magician, who 
gave entertainments in public halls and in the parlors 
of private families, called upon Mr. Foster, with a 
number of his friends. They were somewhat excited, 
and had evidently just come from a good dinner, where 
the wine had not been omitted. Mr. Goldberg's fresh 
young friends proposed to bet any amount of money 
that Mr. Goldberg could perform any "trick," as they 
called it, that Mr. Foster could, and that Mr. Foster's 



66 THE SALEM SEER. 

line of business was the same as Mr. Goldberg's, the 
only difference being that Mr. Foster called his by 
another name to make it more sensational. Mr. Gold- 
berg thought, as he was in the same profession, the 
party should be given a free seance. Mr. Foster, how- 
ever, begged to differ from Mr. Goldberg, not consider- 
ing that their powers were at all relative, and said that if 
they wished to have a seance, it would cost them five 
dollars for each person. As Mr. Goldberg proposed 
being able to duplicate anything that Mr. Foster was 
able to do, Mr. Foster said to him : " I will take twenty 
of these small slips of paper. I will write one name 
of a deceased friend. The other nineteen pieces shall 
remain blank. I will fold each paper over a dozen 
times, mix up the twenty papers, and if you pick out 
on the first trial the paper which contains the name, I 
will give you five dollars and a free seance." Mr. 
Goldberg admitted at once that that was beyond his 
power. Mr. Foster then said to Mr. Goldberg : ''You 
do the same. Step up to the mantelpiece, turn your 
back to me, write one name of a deceased person who 
was very near and dear to you in this life, leave the 
other nineteen pieces blank. Mix them up, so that you 
cannot tell one slip from another. Bring them to me, 
and if I pick out the name correctly on the first trial, 
you will then no doubt be willing to acknowledge that 
our professional powers are of an entirely different 
nature." Another bet was immediately proposed that 
Mr. Foster would not succeed. Mr. Foster refused all 
bets, but at once commenced picking up one slip after 
another, asking the question, as though addressing an 
imaginary person, "Is this the one?" At different 
times came the single rap, which, as usual, was inter- 
preted no. Finally, as he picked up one of the slips, 



THE SALEM SEER. (j 

three distinct raps came. Mr. Foster then said to Mr. 
Goldberg, " This undoubtedly is the name,'' and handed 
it to him, saying-, as Mr. Goldberg- was about to open it, 
" Do not open the slip, and I will write the name in 
full," which he at once did. Mr. Goldberg was then 
as complimentary as he had been insolent, and acknowl- 
edged that his sleight-of-hand performance had nothing 
whatever to do w T ith mental manifestations of that 
kind. They immediately took seats at the table, had a 
satisfactory seance, paid their five dollars, and went 
away — mystified. 

The evidence I have already given, I think, shows 
conclusively that Mr. Foster, could read — or some un- 
known agency could read for him — names and written 
questions, folded in envelopes, in sheet iron, or wrapped 
in tin-foil balls. Let that be a question to solve in 
the A B C of this phenomena. Can this particular 
gift be explained ? Many will say, it is clairvoyance, 
but how little is known about clairvoyance ! My 
only object in agitating this subject is to try to show 
that there is enough of genuine phenomena and truth 
lying back of all trickery and humbug to warrant the 
earnest attention of the scientific world. We know of 
no more skeptical public man than Mr. Labouchere. 
He writes the following in his paper, the London 
Truth, of a dinner given him at Delmonico's: 

We had a private room, and when dinner was nearly finished I hap- 
pened to say to the president that after all I should leave the country 
without meeting Foster. " Shall I send for him ? " he said " By 
all means." I replied ; and he wrote a note to invite him to come to 
the restaurant and smoke a cigar with us. Soon Foster appeared. 
He was a pleasant, gentlemanly man. Dessert was on the table, and he 
sat down, drank his wine, smoked his cigar, and joined in the general- 
conversation. After a little while this conversation gravitated into a 
discussion on Spiritualism. Foster asked me what I thought of him. 



68 THE SALEM SEER. 

I said, *' You are my guest, so I do not wish to offend you, but if you 
really want to know, I regard you as a clever conjuror." "I have," 
he answered, "a certain power." As he said this the chair upon 
which he was sitting began to crack portentously, as though it were 
going to fall into pieces. " Give me the chair," I said, and I tried to 
make it crack in the same manner, but it was a solid piece of furni- 
ture, and I utterly failed. Then there were noises like explosions in 
all parts of the room. " Is that conjuring ? " he said. " Probably," 
I replied. "Can you do it? "he asked. "No, I cannot," I answered. 
At this moment there were loud banging on the ceiling. I rang the 
bell and asked the waiter in French who was in the room above ? He 
went to see, and came back with the information that the room was 
vacant. "A confederate," I observed to Foster, but he denied it. 
On this we sat down round the table. I then went into a corner of the 
room, turned my back on Foster, and having written a word on a piece 
of paper, folded it up and rang the bell. When the waiter came I 
sent him for an envelope, and having put the paper in the envelope, 
which I closed, and put it before a candle to see that the light could 
not shine through it, handed it to Foster, and asked him to read the 
word. He pressed the envelope to his forehead, and then correctly 
read it. " Does this convince you?" he said. " It convinces me," I 
replied, " that you have some curious magnetic power, or that you are 
a singularly clever conjuror; but it certainly does not convince me 
of Spiritualism." I handed him a cigar, which he lit, and relapsed 
from a medium into a pleasant companion. 

M. Burdin, of Paris, a member of the Academy, 
made an offer, in 1837, of a prize of 3, 000 francs to any 
one who should be found capable of reading- through 
opaque substances. The money was deposited in the 
hands of a notary for a period of two years, afterwards 
extended to three ; the announcement was extensively 
published ; numerous cases were offered for examina- 
tion ; every imaginable concession was made to the 
competitors that was compatible with a thorough test- 
ing of the reality of the asserted power, and not one 
was found to stand the trial. Mr. Foster, however, 
performed this supposed impossible feat with perfect 



THE SALEM SEER. 69 

ease, and Mr. Labouchere simply says to Mr. Foster, 
"You have some curious magnetic power." 

In Appendix P. of Prof. Carpenter's book is an 
account of a seance which he had with Mr. Foster in 
London. The professor attributes Mr. Foster's success 
in reading names and answering questions to watching 
the motions of the top of the pencil as they are writ- 
ten. That explanation will not answer, as it has been 
proven that Mr. Foster answered questions equally as 
well when the questions had been prepared at home, 
there having been no pencil used in his presence. Any 
one acquainted with Mr. Foster is only strengthened in 
the belief of the genuineness of manifestations through 
him, by reading the unsatisfactory explanations by 
even the most intelligent critics. 

It happened some eight or ten years ago- in New York City. A 
gentleman and his wife were seated, one summer afternoon, in their 
pleasant little parlor, talking of the "hereafter," when the husband 
jokingly remarked, ''Wife, if you die first, will you come to see me 
again?" She laughingly answered, "Certainly, I will." " In what 
shape," said the husband, " will you come, so that I may be sure of 
your identity? " The wife replied, as glancing out of the open win- 
dow she observed a pet white fawn playing in the yard, " I will come 
in the shape of that white fawn." 

This was, of course, badinage, and the conversation was forgotten 
as soon as ended. 

Five years later, the wife died. The grief-stricken husband, 
hearing of the remarkable gifts of Foster, concluded he would seek an 
interview. He was fortunate in finding Foster alone. Questions were 
written, folded and placed on the table in broad daylight, in the 
usual manner, but the result was disappointing. No response came. 
"Strange," said Foster, placing the papers one after the other to his 
forehead, "I feel no influence whatever. I fear that I am not in 
the proper condition to-day to satisfy you." Again Foster placed 
the slips to his forehead without result, and then rather abstractedly 
leaned back in his chair. All at once, greatly to the astonishment of 
his interviewer, Foster jumped up with unmistakable symptoms of 



7o 



THE SALEM SEER. 



flurry and alarm in his countenance, at the same time brushing 
violently from his lap something nobody saw or felt but himself. At 
last he said: "I know I must be out of sorts, unstrung; for 
although many strange things are constantly happening, I never had 
an experience that startled me so before. It may seem very foolish to 
you, but as I had one of your slips pressed to my forehead, suddenly 
looking up, I saw a beautiful white fawn run across the floor towards 
me, and it jumped into my lap the moment I started from my chair. 
I cannot account for it — cannot understand it ; I only know I saw 
just what I have described." 

His visitor said not a word, gave no clue to an explanation, and 
did not subsequently visit Foster. As he said, he was " afraid to do 



THE SALEM SEER. ji 



CHAPTER VII. 

[Memphis Daily Appeal, Jatiuary 12, 1873.] 

THE VIOLET. 

It is recorded in Mr. Owen's book entitled, " The Debatable Land 
Between this World and the Next." This was in i860. 

Then he turned suddenly to me and said: "Mr. Owen, I see a 
spirit- -a lady standing beside you. Perhaps the same of whom you 
spoke to me. She holds in her hands a basket of flowers. Ah ! that 
is peculiar ; they are all violets. ' ' 

" Does she communicate her name ? " 

Mr. Foster paused. After a time he said : "No, but she has taken 
one of the violets and laid it before you. Has all this any meaning 
for you ? " 

"Yes." 

' ' But we ought to get the name. I usually do. ' ' 

After a few seconds his arm seemed slightly convulsed, as by a feeble 
electric shock, and he said : " The name is on my arm." Where- 
upon he bared his left arm to the elbow, and I read thereon distinctly 
the name "Violet." The letters looked as if they had been traced 
with a painter's brush in pink color, and extended from the elbow 
clear to the palm of the hand. 

[Houston Daily Union, March 73, 1873.] 

But what astonished us most was the appearance on the back of 
the medium's hand, in red letters, the name Ida, very plain. It 
appeared there while the hand was lying idle upon the table, and 
without any effort whatever on his part. It was the name of a 
deceased sister of a member of the circle. 

To sum up, the entire seance was a wonderful and unexpected 
phenomenon, and we are free to confess that, while we do not believe 
that we were actually conversing with the spirits of our departed 
relatives and friends, we cannot account for the precision with which 
our questions were answered. We went there an unbelieving 
skeptic ; we came away almost a convert to spiritualistic converse. 
We will not pretend to deny or contradict anything that we saw or 



72 



THE SALEM SEER. 



heard while in company with the medium. The manifestations were 
simply the most wonderful that have presented themselves to the 
writer, and he has been "around right smart." 

\_Daily State Journal, Austin, March 15, 1873.] 

Mr. Foster, the famous spirit-medium, has arrived in oar city and 
taken rooms at the Raymond House. 

On Friday we called on him, and after a short general conversation 
about his visit to Texas, we arranged to call in the evening. 

After tea we called again, in company with some ladies ; two other 
gentleman acquaintances were present. Mr. Foster requested us to 
write the names of any friends or acquaintances on a paper, and fold 
then up and hand them to him. A gentleman had given us, during 
the day, a folded paper to hand to Mr. Foster. We did not know 
the contents of the paper, nor did any one in the room. He gave the 
name correctly, and a communication from the person addressed. He 
gave the test of the spirit writing his initials in blood upon his hand, 
and many other wonderful tests of his power. Whatever skeptics 
may say, Mr. Foster will stagger the unbelief of any one who may 
visit him. 

\_Nashville Union and American, Djc. 30, 1872.] 

He returned these names to Foster, who stated that he could not 
tell him exactly then, because another 

WANDERING SHADE FROM THE SPIRIT-WORLD 

was present, annoying him very much, and was very anxious to speak 
to Smith. The spirit, through Foster, the medium, said it wanted to 
write its 

INITIALS IN BLOOD ON FOSTER'S HAND. 

Smith laughed at the absurdity of such a proposition, and very 
reluctantly we all thought no spirit could so write its initials. How- 
ever, Mr. P'oster held forth his hand, his fingers twitched as if electri- 
fied by a galvanic battery, and within a minute's time the 

LETTERS "C.T. D." 

were as visibly traced thereon as if printed there. Smith was very 
much amazed at this startling manifestation, and immediately he 
recognized the initials as those of a friend who died several months 
ago. This dead friend's name Smith had not written on any of the 



THE SALEM SEER. 



73 



paper slips, and had not uttered it to any one present. How Foster, 
who now spelled the full name, could have gained the information, is 
perhaps beyond human reason to know. Smith said the letters looked 
like his friend's 

HANDWRITING, 

and as such he would have recognized them anywhere. After asking 
questions and receiving satisfactory answers, this spirit departed and 
the spirit of the first-mentioned friend returned, its presence agitating 
Mr. Foster, whose sensations we learned were somewhat like those 
from a galvanic shock. He forthwith wrote the mode and place of 
his death. Mr. Foster now gave 

A PERSONAL DESCRIPTION 

of the dead friend, who had light hair, blue eyes, presenting a pale 
and care-worn appearance. Upon inquiry as to how he so perfectly, 
and yet so minutely, described dead persons, he informed us that 

THE SPIRIT STOOD BEFORE HIM. 

He could see its person, every feature and lineament, as well as he 
could those of the living. While we wondered how all this mystic 
power was his, we also were forced to acknowledge his descriptions 
were most wonderfully true, and must be made with some perception 
of the person so described. Mr. Foster stated he could see a person 
plainly, and said : 

"A WOMAN COMETH, HOLDING A WREATH, 

and 'mid its floral beauty circle I see inscribed, in glittering letters, 
the name ' Maggie.' " And, sure enough, one of the party stated that 
it was a beautiful little girl who had long been slumbering with the 
dead, and in recalling those who were in the grave, he had thought 
of little Maggie. Mr. Foster gave a true description of her appear- 
ance ; and the circumstances of her death, with various instances of 
her life, were detailed with an exactness scarcely less astonishing than 
true. 

A young gentleman, formerly a student of Washington Lee Univer- 
sity, wrote on paper the following 

"NICKNAMES " 

of certain class-mates : "Cophagus," "Taurus," " Tom," "Bob," 
"Berk," "Doctor," " Pig," " Brother Bucker," and " Ike." One 
of the number bearing one of these nick -names was dead, and Mr. 



74 



THE SALEM SEER. 



Foster was asked to tell the real name of that deceased one. This 
he did, and also stated which of the nicknames he bore. However 
much surprised the young man was, he was amazed when Mr. Foster 
told him that his nickname was 



This was quite laughable to us, and yet it was quite satisfactory to 
all. We shall give our readers interesting, and, we trust, truthful 
accounts of Mr. Foster's manifestations during his visit here. What- 
ever the incredulous say, we are inclined to believe him an extraordi- 
nary man. Irrespective of any spiritual causality, the method he illus- 
trates so well, of ascertaining events and knowing circumstances 
beyond the grasp of reason itself, is worth much, and may be pro- 
ductive of much that is useful in the pursuits of life and the induc- 
tive researches of science. If true, it deserves investigation, and is 
susceptible of thorough development. If false, it demands attention, 
and must be comprehended in order to be successfully combated. 
Such could be said of all transcendentalism as well as of the humblest 
truth, however startling the mystic character of the one and obscure 
the other. Regarding scientific follies, Fon telle says: " It is proper, 
however, to apply one's self to these inquiries, because we find as we 
proceed many valuable discoveries of which we were before igno- 
rant." This remark is aptly illustrated in many instances by the 
researches of scientific men ; among them, Glauber, who, after a 
vainly long search for the '' philosopher's stone, " discovered a valuable 
purging salt which bears his name. So, it is well to give such subjects 
a serious consideration. Truth is never defiled by, and its purity is 
not marred by, sincere investigation. Mr. Foster informs us he is able 
to commune with the dead of antiquity, and this is a test many have 
believed no medium could stand. At any rate, Mr. Foster will give 
satisfactory evidence of his power in this respect. He professes merely 
to act as an agency for communicating with the dead, and he has 
been the subject of much scientific study. 

As I have said before, nearly all the articles from 
which I have quoted were written by pronounced skep- 
tics, who would have preferred, and usually expected, 
to write adversely, and if possible expose Mr. Foster. 
The favorable accounts given show the genuineness 
of Mr. Foster's great power. Occasionally, however, 



THE SALEM SEER. 



75 



he would partially fail, and I have often been present 
when his seances were far from satisfactory. The fail- 
ure on such occasions were eagerly reported by the 
press, and many bitter articles were written attacking 
him. In fairness to the subject, I think I should give 
one or two samples on the other side. The following 
is from the Boston Globe, July 29, 1873 : 

It is astonishing how this ridiculous imposture, Spiritualism, nourishes, 
in spite of the damaging exposures of its professional exponents that 
take place almost daily. It has been in active vogue for years, and 
yet it has accomplished no single good, or told one valuable truth. It 
has neither added to our information upon the practical affairs of life, 
nor advanced one word to the benefit of art, science or literature. Its 
revelations have been confined to the utterance of commonplace or high- 
flown transcendentalism, and its performances to silly and useless 
jugglery. Its media are, without exception, those who make a liveli- 
hood out of it. We have never heard of a man or woman of science, 
of education, or of high social standing, who was possessed of the gifts 
of a medium. We have waited for years in vain for some disinterested 
person whose motives were above the shadow of suspicion, who should 
come forward and show the possession of power similar to that claimed 
by the professional media, who are in the main ignorant and money- 
hungry people. It is a profitable business, and to none has it proven 
more remunerative than to Mr. Foster : but our experience of it, as 
practiced by him and by many others we have tested, shows it to us as 
a business barren of either principle or honor, and one which, in view 
of the outrageous boldness and heartlessness that characterize the huge 
swindle, should be subjected to that wholesome discipline provided by 
the law against obtaining money under false pretences. 

A correspondent to the above paper writes : 

This man Foster has been doing a tremendous business in New 
York for years, without having been exposed in the least. It was 
reserved for the Boston Dally Globe to throw the first stone at him. 
Now why not finish him by having him arrested for obtaining money 
under false pretences ? It certainly amounts to that, and you have 
the proof in your own hands. Finish the good work begun by send- 
ing him where he will be of some service to the State, and thereby 
save hundreds of people from being swindled out of their money, and 
perhapssave many from becoming the inmates of a lunatic asylum. 



7 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

Epes Sargent wrote a lengthy reply to the Globe 
article, a portion of which we quote : 

The real question at issue, as this writer ought to learn before he 
again attempts to wield the editorial pen, and "swindle" the public on 
this great subject, is not whether spirits are at work, but whether cer- 
tain phenomena, transcending the power of any man in his purely 
natural state to produce, do actually occur. That they do is an 
established fact in the minds of thousands of persons in this very city 
of Boston, to whom the proprietors of the Globe look for help in sus- 
taining that paper, either as subscribers or advertisers ; and the writer 
little dreams how many of his own readers he ignorantly insults when 
he prates of " the credulity of our citizens," and of this "ridiculous 
imposture." Such men, forsooth, as Alfred R. Wallace, Lord Broug- 
ham, Robert Hare, Mr. Crooks (editor of the London Quarterly 
Journal of Science), the late Robert G. Shaw, the late Nathaniel 
Bowditch, the Rev. William Mountford, Hermann Fichte (son of Fichte 
the immortal) — such men as these, and many hundreds more that we 
might name, our fellow-citizens, neighbors and friends, the victims of 
a "ridiculous imposture," which it is the province of this immensely 
sagacious gentleman of the press to puncture and dispel ! 

And he wants the ' ' authorities ' ' to interfere ! We would like to 
see the authorities that in this nineteenth century, and in this intelligent 
city of Boston, would dare to yield to the instigation of any swell of a 
journalist, and attempt to put down Mr. Foster as a swindler ! We 
hardly think they would remain "authorities " long. The truth of 
the matter is, the writer in the Globe has simply walked into the 
wrong century. He belongs to a past era. He should have been 
born in the year 1625, and been present at the hanging of Burroughs 
and others in Essex County for witchcraft. What a jolly time he 
would have had of it ! And what a comfort it would be for him to see 
Mr. Foster, if not strung up on a gallows, yet cutting stone with a 
state prison gang during the heated term, and, in his leisure moments 
— most remorseless of inflictions ! — compelled to read the editorials of 
the Globe ! 

From my investigation, I am positive that there are 
truths of great importance yet to be brought out of 
what is called spiritual phenomena, although a bad odor 
seems to follow the very name of Spiritualism, it having 



THE SALEM SEER. 



77 



been brought into disgrace by common women and 
unprincipled men. I yet have hope for the future, and 
as has been said, 

One sometimes gathers gold from mirv sands, 
And violets oft bloom in darksome places. 



A man like Foster should not have been allowed to 
die so little understood, his power having been so lightly 
treated by thinking and scientific men ! It is true that 
Profs. Crooks and Wallace have given much attention 
to the subject, with good results, and the investigation 
by the Dialectical Society of London for several years 
accumulated valuable facts. There was also a committee 
appointed in Russia for investigation, with good results. 
Also a society in England and in this country, called 
the Society for Psychical Research, which seem, how- 
ever, to work slowly, and with small results. The 
subject seems to me of vital importance, and worthy 
the attention and investigation of the scientific world. 
I would suggest commencing at the A B C. I have 
not a doubt but that raps can be produced through cer- 
tain mediums, without any kind of trickery. I would 
suggest first to investigate the rapping, which will not 
be easy, for the intelligence behind the rap must also 
be explained. 

Speaking of the rapping phenomenon, reminds me of 
a dinner I attended in Boston. There was quite a large 
number present, among others, Charles H. Foster, 
Robert Dale Owen, and the Boston poetess, Lizzie 
Doten. The dining-hall was large and without carpet, 
the floor being waxed, as it was also used as a dancing 
hall. After the covers were removed, it was proposed 
that we should have a dark seance. In fact the lights 



7 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

were turned out without consulting Mr. Foster. Had he 
been consulted, he would probably not have given his 
consent, being as timid and apparently as afraid of dark- 
ness as a child. Two leaves of the dining-table were 
taken out, intending to shove the table together, to make 
it somewhat smaller. But the table would not shove. 
Who has not experienced this difficulty with their 
dining-table ! In this instance, however, I consider it 
fortunate that the leaves were left out. Many sur- 
prising physical manifestations occurred, so startling 
in their nature that I can hardly believe that they 
occurred myself! In these accounts of Foster, I have 
intentionally avoided mentioning the physical mani- 
festations, and have thought it better to confine my- 
self entirely to mental phenomena. The raps, I think, 
might be regarded as both mental and physical. 
Numerous questions were asked and answered by Mr. 
Foster, when suddenly, looking through the aperture 
which the vacant leaves left in the table, I perceived 
numerous small lights, like little balls of fire, in size 
from a large pinhead to that of a pigeon egg. The 
entire space of the lower part of the table was filled 
with these electric sparks, and this to me was a won- 
derful phenomenon. When a question was asked, and 
the answer was no, which was signified by one rap, 
one of these sparks, or balls of fire, darted against the 
side of the table or on the floor, producing the rapping, 
and disappeared. If the rap was low, a little ball of 
fire ; just in proportion to the loudness of the rap was 
the size of the ball used. A loud rap evidently re- 
quired a large ball of fire to explode. Having dis- 
covered this first, I called the attention of the others 
to the fact This lasted for nearly one hour. When 
the answer was yes, we could see three little balls 



THE SALEM SEER. 



79 



of fire separate themselves from the others, run one 
after another, strike and disappear. We asked the 
raps to come as rapidly as possible, which was done, 
dozens of them racing one after another, with scarcely 
any intermission. Then we asked the raps to come 
deliberately, then slow, which was immediately com- 
plied with. That night's experience satisfied me for- 
ever that there were raps produced through an agency 
which has not yet been explained satisfactorily. 



*8o THE SALEM SEER. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

During my early association with Mr. Foster, we 
frequently held conversations on religious beliefs, the 
churches, and the attitude of clergymen to Spirit- 
ualism. Many clergymen called upon him, and he 
was always pleased to receive them. I proposed 
that we should insert in our advertisements that all 
clergymen could have the privilege of investigating 
this subject through him free of charge. Thereafter 
we caused notices similar to the following to appear 
in the leading papers of the cities which we visited : 

Mr. C. H. Foster, the medium, is desirous of meeting the clergy 
of , that they may have an opportunity to investigate the phe- 
nomena given through him. He will be glad to meet them in his 

rooms at , at any time, and will give them sittings free of 

charge. It is to be hoped that the clergy will visit Mr. Foster, and 
witness the manifestations he gives. 

Mr. Foster, during the summer, was often invited to 
Nahant to visit his friend, the Rev. Mr. Mountford, 
at whose house he frequently met Longfellow. It 
is probably owing to the communications which Mr. 
Longfellow received through Mr. Foster that give's 
the spiritual flavor to many of his verses. For ex- 
ample : 

Spirit friends are ever with us, 
Whispering, could our ears but hear, 

Words of love and hopeful promise : 
E'en though dead, they still are near. 



THE SALEM SEER. 8 1 

The Rev. Mr. Mountford was the author of "Mir- 
acles, Past and Present." 

As Swedenborg was the great spiritual medium of 
his day and generation, so, we believe, Charles H. Fos- 
ter was the great medium of the nineteenth century. 
A century separates them. Swedenborg died in 1772, 
and Foster was doing his best work in the decade fol- 
lowing 1870. Foster exerted an extensive influence, 
either for good or evil. If it were for evil, all the more 
should we investigate it and help to blot it out forever. 
If for good, we should investigate and do all in our 
power to perpetuate it. 

The following extract from the report of a seance 
appeared in the Denver Sunday Mirror : 

It is sufficient to say that all the tests given were of the most critical 
and exacting character ; yet they were met and solved with a noncha- 
lance that fairly startled to the roots of the hair every person present. 
Early in the evening, and before Foster had arrived, Judge Bond had 
penciled, "What is the name of my mother ? " adding in his positive 
way, ''I know that no one in this city but myself can tell, and if he 
answers correctly he will do what no other medium ever did." As 
Foster's hand took up the slip he as quickly responded, "Yes, your 
mother will answer your question. Her name is Almeda." Again, to 
Gen. Fisk : " A friend is present whose death was sudden. The name 
is Lee (appearing in red letters on his hand). Do you remember the 
circumstance? He was shot in Virginia. " To all this Gen. Fisk, 
blanching with consternation, assented, though he had not been think- 
ing of the person referred to. Foster also saw and described two broth- 
ers of Col. Stuart (one living and one dead), and recalled other rela- 
tives and friends who had "gone before," giving dates, age, names 
and causes of death with alarming particularity. All at once Foster 
looks around and exclaims abstractedly, "Cousin Hattie ! Who is 
Cousin Hattie?" Then, turning to the writer, adds, "Your dear 
Cousin Hattie is present, and bids me give you her undying love." 
Picking up a slip, he tossed it to us, exclaiming, ' ' That is the ques- 
tion you wrote," which it proved to be. "Cousin Hattie," the 
wife of the late John Pierpont, the poet, being a relative to whom we 
were warmly attached. 



82 THE SALEM SEER. 

Again, ' ' Aunt Sallie is present, ' ' describing her minutely, and 
recalling to another of the coterie (who had certainly not once thought 
of her during the evening) an esteemed relative long since dead. 

Still again to Mrs. Bond, "Your dear friend Lucia is glad to 
send greeting." 

To Gen. Fiske, giving name in full (James A. Fiske), " He is your 
guardian spirit, and is constantly with you." 

The reader must understand that in the instances cited, and many 
others we haven't space for, the spirits named and described so as to 
be at once recognized were of persons who had neither been inquired 
after nor even thought of by those present. He not only gave per- 
fectly intelligent and accurate answers to every question that was 
written, upon almost every conceivable topic, but suggested and 
depicted the faces, forms, manner and conversation of long deceased 
friends who had not even been dreamed of by any of the company 
present. 

While in Paris, Mr. Foster was the object of distin- 
guished attention. He was an invited guest of Emperor 
Napoleon, and had frequent sittings with him and the 
Empress and members of the imperial household. 
Among his patrons and friends were the Duke and Duch- 
ess Persigny, Duke d'Aumale and others of the nobility. 
In Belgium he was equally favored, receiving from ex- 
King Leopold a diamond ring as a token of his regard. 
In England he was the recipient of numberless personal 
and social favors. 

AUTOGRAPHIC EXCERPTS. 

Foster's book of original autographic letters from 
distinguished personages (although he seemed to set 
small store by them and gave scores away, including 
some dozen letters from Dickens and Thackeray) is of 
rare value. Scattered loosely through a plethoric 
volume (the seals on their envelops bearing the crests, 
bars and shields of dukes, earls, lords, etc.) are plenti- 
ful evidences from the nobility of their friendly regard. 



THE SALEM SEEK. %$ 

Turning 1 over its pages we find such names as the 
following : Stewart Hobhouse (of the Byron family) 
Lady McDonald Lockhart (niece of Sir Walter Scott), 
Ruskin (the famous art critic), Lady Elizabeth Byran, J. 
Milner Gibson, Thos. Browne, Mrs. Frederick Milbank, 
Sir Greville Smyth, Lord Napier, T. S. T. Sinclair, Ed- 
ward Montague Manning, William Howitt, Sir Emerson 
Tennant, Robert Chambers, and many other celebrities. 
These letters contained appointments for interviews, 
invitations to dinner (among the latter one from an 
Episcopal bishop), most of them embodying expres- 
sions of friendship and good will. We copy an original 
epistle in the delicate, tremulous handwriting of Lord 
Bulwer : 

35 Spencer Place. 
My Dear Foster — Would you fix any hour on Monday next for a seance 
at your house, between 2 and 5 o'clock. There are two or three per- 
sons of some importance whom I should like to bring you. 

Yours, E. Bulwer Lytton. 

The letter from Thomas Browne is a full and cordial 
invitation to dine at his residence. The first of several 
letters from the philanthropist, Emily Faithful, reads as 
follows : 

Sir — I should like to see you on Saturday alone with one friend, 
having been interested by Sir Emerson Tennant's account of his visit. 
Will you write to me, naming your hour. Very truly, 

Emily Faithful. 

From another letter soliciting arrangement for an in- 
terview with 

* * * a distinguished party, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Lady Wm. Pow- 
lett and Mrs. Wm. Disraeli (the Countess Beaconsfield), wife of the 
great Tory leader and ex-Minister ot State. Lady Powlett is the 
daughter of the Earl of Lonsdale, etc. 



84 THE SALEM SEER. 

Some of the most beautiful letters in Foster's posses- 
sion are from the lovely Gary sisters (now passed 
away), who were pronounced spiritualists and among 
his warmest personal friends. 

He also gave seances to the Duke of Wellington, 
Lord Palmerston, Edmund Yates, Robert Browning, 
Tennyson, Rittenback, Dr. Ashburner, Abraham Lin- 
coln, Andrew Johnston, Jay Gould, Tom Scott, Bay- 
ard Taylor, George Arnold, N. P. Willis, John Hay, 
Walt Whitman, J. G. Holland, Dan. E. Sickles, Gen. B. 
F. Butler, Gen. Sheridan and many others whose names 
are known in society, literature, science, art and politics. 
Mr. Robert Browning became much interested in 
Spiritualism, but was apparently somewhat annoyed at 
his wife's enthusiasm and hasty conversion. He was 
more of a philosopher. He refers, however, to Mr. 
Home, and not to Mr. Foster, in his poem, " Mr. Sludge 
the Medium." 

Abraham Lincoln was also a spiritualist, and was 
intensely interested in the subject ; but Mrs. Lincoln 
went beyond all bounds, and seemed to think that 
every trifling occurrence had some wonderful spiritual 
significance. 

Usually I think an over-belief causes more discord 
and unhappiness in a family than an under-belief. 

Mr. Foster created quite a sensation in Salt Lake City. 
The Morning Tribune says of him, " Here comes a man 
who gives people more revelation in ten minutes than 
they have received through Brigham Young in twenty- 
five years, and more than they would receive through 
him in the next thousand years were he to live so long. 
Is it any wonder that the 'priesthood ' feel it necessary 
to caution their brethren against being carried away 
by these strong delusions ? " 



THE SALEM SEER. 85 

We quote one instance from a seance described in the 
same paper. Foster said, "Here is one who died a 
violent death." Raps upon the table followed, and a 
slip was taken from the mass bearing the name of 
George Watson. This was pronounced correct by the 
writer. His manner of death was next inquired for. 
The spirits were interrogated, but they failed to come to 
time. "The answer will be written in blood upon my 
arm,'' said the medium, and he bared that member to 
receive the inscription. Placing his left arm upon the 
table, a violent commotion seized it ; he raised it, passed 
his hand up and down the member, and the word 
"Fall," in red lines, was distinctly visible. The de- 
ceased friend had died from a fall in Kansas City two 
years previous. 

As I look over my Scrap-Book, and read the accounts 
that were published in the different newspapers and 
magazines while I was associated with Mr. Foster, I 
feel a strong desire that they should be re-published. 
They were usually written by the editors, or capable 
reporters. I pass by many, but the following, from 
the Sacramento Record, Dec. 8, 1873, impresses me 
as being so cleverly written that I give it in full : 

TWO HOURS WITH THE DISEMBODIED. 

WHERE WE WENT AND WHAT WE SAW AND HEARD WHILE THERE — 
FACTS IN NUTSHELLS FOR PUBLIC CRACKING. 

The mission and duty of the press extends not only to the exposure 
of error and the upholding of truth, but to the statement of all facts of 
the day which are at all doubtful, leaving the reader to pass upon 
questions of theory and merit. Newspapers being the abstract and 
brief chronicles of the times, as a certain Mr. Shakespeare remarked, 
and having an eye open to all that is going on, must take equal notice 
of passing curiosities, whether they be Cardiff giants, Lilliputian 



86 THE SALEM SEER. 

humans, or the spirits of the air. People who travel in the newspaper 
coach must expect some jolting, for your true journal explores all 
roads, makes a note of every mile-post, runs in no groove, and has 
but two words in its creed — truth and news. With some prefatory re- 
marks of this kind, our chef thrust a card into our hand on Saturday 
with some brief directions as to hour and location, and with a rather 
contemptuous sneer and cynical expression directed us to call on this 
fellow Foster and see if his show is of any interest to the public. Set- 
tling down to our task, we ascertained " this fellow Foster " was the 
same chap who formed the subject of Leaman's article in the June 
number of Scribner 's ; entitled "A Seance with Foster"; the same 
man who woke up John Paul to such a lively criticism in the New 
York Tribune ; the man for whom Myers committed suicide at Salt 
Lake ; the man who mystified the gray -beard of that staid sheet, the 
Boston Herald ; induced Robert Dale Owen to devote to him a chapter 
in his " Debatable Land," and was the intimate friend of Bulwer, the 
romancist, afterward Lord Lytton, who drew from Foster all the 
weird and mystical which envelopes the "Strange Story," and who 
made Foster the model for that never to be comprehended character 
" Margrane " in that singular novel. Determined to be doubly armed 
with witnesses, we organized a party of gentlemen, unbelievers, shrewd 
men of the world, up to all the tricks of the table-tipping tribe, and 
made a raid on the rooms of C. H. Foster, the so-called king pin of 
all the spiritual mediums, whose reputation in Europe and our own 
country as the biggest show of the times has preceded him to this 
coast. Entering the room, we found a full-faced, good-looking, black- 
haired, black-eyed, dark-moustached, heavy man, tall and well pro- 
portioned, aged about 36, and with his hair parted effeminately toward 
the middle. He was reclining lazily in a great chair, and smoking a 
half-lighted cigar with the utmost nonchalance. He didn't fill the 
bill mediumistic at all, but seemed, as he proved to be, a self pos- 
sessed, impassive, jolly-dog sort of a chap. 

Presenting their credentials, which were found O. K., the party 
seated themselves at a rickety two-leafed table, four persons in all, 
and the following things, among many others, transpired, which we 
record exactly as they happened, and leave it to those who have the 
time and desire to talk about odic forces, psychology, mind-reading, 
clairvoyance and the other theories offered in explanation of phenom- 
ena which confounds the understanding, vexes the curiosity and takes 
the conceit out of modern necromancers and smart reporters who 
know "just how the tricks are done." If Foster is a humbug he 



THE SALEM SEER. 8y 

ought to be exposed ; if he is the possessor of the secret of a new force 
or science it should be evolved and made public property ; if he is 
what he claims to be, he deserves attention. In any light, there is no 
reason why this Young American age shouldn't tackle Foster and 
serve him and his familiar spirits up for the public good. 

A. — " What is the extent of your pov/er as a medium, Mr. Foster? " 

Foster — " Oh," — puff — " every " — puff — " thing in the line." 

A. — " Do you see spirits ? " 

Foster — "Yes; not now, but I shall to-day." 

A. — '* And hear them ? " 

Foster — " Oh, yes I do, that." 

A. — "Well, the test to me of a spirit-presence is evidence of its 
identity, known alone to it and me." 

Foster — "Yes?" puff, "bother this cigar," relighting it, "you'll 
get plenty of that. I haven't anything to do with it. They use me, 
and have from childhood, as a machine for you folk." 

D. — " I have tipped tables myself, when a boy, for fun." 

Foster — ''Many can do that who know nothing of the spiritual 
world." 

C. — "Boil ahead, Foster; let's see the thing begin." 

Foster reseated himself, having arisen a dozen times to light that 
cigar, and began to tear paper into slips about the size of the ipecac 
powders of our youth. 

A. — " Who was this man who killed himself at Salt Lake on your 
account ? ' ' 

Foster — "Oh, his name was Myers. I'm sure I don't know why 
he should have done so ; perhaps he believed in the spirit world ; per- 
haps — well it's a matter of no consequence to me, I know nothing of 
it." 

A. — "You're not the man 1 expected to see." 

Foster— " No ? Why, better looking ? " 

A. — ''No, but I expected to find a grave old gray-beard, blue 
under the eyes, and awfully spiritual." 

Foster — "Well, that's the result of your education. Is there any 
known reason why spiritual intercourse should render a man less 
happy ? Oh, no ! Spirits are pleasant folk, and the last in creation 
to make you morose and sober-sided. They may make you thought- 
ful, ought to influence you for good, but, my dear sir, they don't ex- 
cite fear in the true man. 

"Well, gentlemen, are there any spirits you desire to communicate 
with ? If so, write several names on these slips, fold them over and 



88 ^ THE SALEM SEER. 

over, so that it shall be impossible for me to see them, and toss them 
on the table." 

Each did as desired. A. retiring to a corner to write, C. shading 
his slips with a book, and Foster going to the grate to relight that 
cigar which was forever going out. Seven slips were prepared, which 
were thoroughly mixed up by C, and all the party were again seated. 
The moment we were down raps were heard on the wardrobe in a 
corner, on a bedstead near at hand, and a gentle tapping on and un- 
der the table. The room was small, no one else in it, no closet, the 
window curtains up, and the place flooded with light. 

Foster — "Ah, this is my first sitting to-day. It is a damp and murky 
day, when, I don't know why, the influences are usually weak, but I 
feel we are to have plenty of communications. The room is full of the 
spirit people. You gentlemen are all in harmony." 

A. — '' Yes, sir, all unbelievers to our backbones and all good friends." 

Foster — "That's all right; but you all desire communications, and 
that's all that is necessary." 

The raps came now, thick and fast. 

Foster— "Now, spirits, if any desire to communicate, make it mani- 
fest." 

Rap, rap, rap. 

Foster now took the slips from the table and pressed them one by 
one to his forehead rapidly. As he reached the third one, and before 
his hand touched it, rap, rap, rap. 

Foster — "Ah, is this the one ? " Rap, rap, rap. " Sure ? " Rap, 
rap, rap (meaning yes). 

Foster seized his pencil. "It is for you, sir," to C. 

C. took the alphabet, printed on a bit of card, and pointed to the 
letters in order, when "Edward" was spelled out by raps, but with 
great hesitancy and conflicting raps on the "ard." 

C. — " I know no Edward." 

Foster — "Oh, you marked the wrong letters. Here," — and 
seizing his paper he wrote rapidly, " E. B. W." " Those are his ini- 
tials, and here, this is the full name, E. B. W 1. Is it right, 

sir?" 

C. assured him it was, and that no man in California knew the 
name but himself, probably. 

Foster— " You see what you wrote, ' Edw.' was really ' E. B. W.' " 

C— " When did you die ? " 

" 1857," spelled out by figures. A., who did not know the person, 
writing it out as it was rapped. Right. 



THE SALEM SEER. 89 

C. — ''Now, if you are E. B. W., tell me what was your occupation ? " 

Foster — " Now I will give you the crucial test — the test with which 
I intend to confound the members of the Royal Society." 

C. then wrote out a long list of occupations of all grades. Foster 
took the list and tore off each line, and rolled the paper into small pel- 
lets the size of bullets. Meanwhile C. made two pellets of blank paper 
and slipped them into the pile. All were piled upon the table and 
mixed up. Foster picked up one with his thumb and index finger, 
without apparent selection. 

" Is this it? " Rap, rap, rap, gently. " Are you sure? " Rap, rap, 
rap, loud and decided. 

He threw the pellet to C. He opened it and read, " President of a 
bank." 

Foster— " Well ? " 

C. — " It is right." 

Foster — " This is all bosh about mind-reading; if there is such a 
thing this test ends it. Here, at these pellets, mind ends, and the 
spiritual proves itself." 

C. could not but confess that it was double test, for the medium 
had not only to determine which pellet to pick out, but also to deter- 
mine the occupation correctly. He was satisfied with the answer, but 
also wished a further test. Of what bank, now, would be a severer 
test, for he alone knew. Foster did not know; he had never seen 
him. D. and A. did not know, never could have known, so he asked. 

" President of bank " was designated. 

C. — "Well, but of what, where? " 

Foster — "Write out a list." 

A list was then written out in this manner, and purposely, and to 
its form attention is called : 

"Branch St. Bk., Ohio." 

" Bank Rensaeler." 

"Bank Terre Haute." 

"Branch St. Bk. Ind., at 
Mich. City." 

"Branch St. Bk. Ind., 
Evansville. ' ' 

"Bank Albany." 

"Bank of Racine." 

Foster seized the pencil, pressed its point nervously upon the word 
bank in the last line, his countenance showing intense agitation, his 
eyes being fixed and lifeless. Slowly the pencil traveled over the last 



go 



THE SALEM SEER, 



line, crossing it out, over the next, crossing it out, over the word 
Evansville, crossing it out, passed around the end of the next line 
close to " Ind." close under " Mich. City " and around the end of it, 
and then suddenly erased all above it. 

This left the only words unobliterated to read in full : 

"Michigan City, Branch of the State Bank of Indiana." Whereas 
it had been written " Branch of the State Bank of Indiana, at Michigan 
City." Parts of two lines being thus selected to make the answer. 

C. — "That is right, as I wrote it was its corporate or business name, 
as marked out was the usual way it was spoken of. Each of the 
twelve branches being usually spoken of first by the name of the town 
where located. " 

C. — "What relation are you to me ? " 

Foster seized a bit of paper and a stub of pencil and with one hand 
held both under the table, against some part of it, for an instant, and 
threw it back. A scrawl was seen, a word written backwards. Held 
to the light we read from the reverse side plainly, "Father." 
"Right," said C. 

Here a spirit calling herself "Mary," the deceased friend of the 
wife of one of the party, struggled to get a word in edgewise, but the 
husband couldn't think who she was, and so she retired. The wife says 
she had a friend Mary deceased, whom she called Mollie, " But these 
stupid men never remember anything." 

At this point Foster called attention to the fact that C. had not 
opened the slip designated as bearing E. B. W.'s name. It was 
opened and found to be the proper one. 

Foster — " What's that you say ? " speaking aside, as if to some un- 
seen presence, "Oh, you do; very well." To D. — " Here is a spirit 
beside you desires to communicate to you." 

D.— "What spirit is it?" 

Foster — "You will write, yes?" To the unseen — "Very well, 
now then " — He seized the pencil and wrote rapidly : 

" I am here with you to-day, and glad to be able to speak with you. 
I am often near you when you are not aware of my presence. 

(Signed) Julia." 

Foster — "Who is Julia, sir? " 

D.—" Can't you tell?" 

Foster — " Oh, yes." Whereupon he seized one of the folded slips, 
passed it over his forehead, muttering to the unseen Ella, " Is this it? 
or this? or this? " rap, rap, rap. "Are you sure? " rap, rap, rap. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



9* 



"There it is." The slip was opened by D., and thereon appeared 
the word "Ella." 

Foster — "Is that correct? " 

D. — " It is ; I wrote it." 

Foster — " Her full name is — " 

D. — " Don't speak it, if you please." 

Foster now got up and lit that confounded cigar, while raps were 
knocking about on all sides, and the thought came to us, will Horn- 
blower be able to rent room 26 at the Orleans when this man goes out ? 
If it isn't full of spirits and ghosts for a year and a day we're a shingle, 
that's all. As Foster walked back to the table he said there was a 
strange — a painful influence upon him, of one who had suicided or 
died by accident. 

D. suggested it might be one who was murdered. 

Foster — "Well, I should call that accidental. Ah! now the in- 
fluence is strong upon me " — turning suddenly and seizing D.'s hand, 
and struggling to speak, his face full of anxiety; "Char — Char — 
Charles Har — Har — Harg — Hargiv — Hargiv — Charles Hargiv — oh, 
help me to speak it, sir ! '* 

D. — ' ' Charles Hargiven? " 

Foster — "Yes, Charles Hargiven." 

D.— " Of what did he die ? " 

Foster — '' Suicide — no, accidental death — suicidal — violent death — 
accidental death." 

D._ "No." 

Foster — "Yes, I say, some violent death," motioning to his side, 
and imitating the stab of a dirk. 

D.— "Murder?" 

Foster — ' ' Yes, murder. ' ' 

D. — " That is right. It was years ago, in Australia. Now tell me, 
if you are Charles Hargiven, what countryman were you? " 

Foster — " He says he was an Englishman." 

D — "No, he was not." 

Foster — " He called himself such." 

D.—" So he did." 

D. now took a sheet of paper and wrote twelve nativities in a row, 
and among others the true one for Charles Hargiven. Foster took his 
pencil and marked out, as in the case of the bank, all the words but 
this — ' ' Eurasian . " 

D. — " Gentlemen, no living being on this continent knew that fact. 
He was Eurasian — that is, his father was European — English; his 



9 2 



THE SALEM SEER. 



mother Asiatic — -East Indian. Such children are called Eurasians; but 
as his father was English he was in law an Englishman." 

Suddenly Foster turned to A. 

ii Ah, here is a sad face. She comes to give evidence of faith and 
that she lives. She is here with you. A sweet, sad face, a gentle be- 
ing in life. Her name is Stella Edgescomb." 

A. started as if shot. 

" Write to her," said Foster, "she influences me strongly." 

A. wrote this question: "Am I living such a life here as you would 
have commended ? ' ' 

Foster took the question, closely folded, pressed it to his forehead, 
threw it on the table, and rapidly wrote or scrawled in a horribly ugly 
" fist " : " You are trying to do the best you can, and I am satisfied 
with the life you are leading here." 

"Hold," said Foster. "What, want to sign it yourself? She says 
she will sign her own name." 

His hand straightened out and the fingers, moving slowly, easily 
the name Stella Edgescomb in a delicate chirography was traced, 
which A. with much emotion declared to be the signature of his friend 
who died years ago in the far East. Immediately Foster designated 
one of the folded slips, and on it also appeared her name. 

C. had written the name of Lewis Saunders, Jr., an old resident of 
Sacramento, well known here up to i86o-'62, and the head of one of 
the oldest families of the day. He was a prominent lawyer, and died, 
in 1863, in San Francisco. 

Foster, turning to C, said: " Some one is here to see you. Lewis 
is his first name. I feel a double influence. Ah, there are two 
Lewises ; yes, two Lewis Saunders, and strange, the elder man is 
Lewis Saunders, Jr." 

C. at this moment remembered that Colonel Saunders had a son 
Lewis, also deceased, a fact then recalled to his memory for the first 
time in eight years, and he had not written the son's name on one of 
the slips, nor had he thought of him. 

Foster — "This man is not near to you; he is not a relative; he was 
merely your business friend." 

C. — "Correct. What does he say ? " 

Foster — "What have you to say, Lewis? He says he is glad to be 
able to speak to you and testify that the soul is immortal. He says he 
remembers you kindly." Where Saunders lived and died was then 
rapped out. 

C. then wrote Colonel Saunders a question, folded it, and laid it on 
the table. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



93 



Foster touched it to his brow. 

Foster — " He says, yes. The spirit world is about you, around you. 
Like the earth, life intensified, but yet different in all respects. He 
would tell you • he fails; he influences me no more." 

The question was: "Can you tell me what and where is spirit 
land?" 

Foster requested A. at this point to change his seat, the Stella Edges- 
comb influence was so strong that she got herself mixed up with the 
other spirits considerably, like the head of Charles the First in the 
manuscript of Mr. Dick. A. moved, but propounded other questions 
to Stella, and got answers seemingly affording a test of identity. . A. 
declared about this time that somebody was lifting up his elbow and 
hand, and Foster told him that was all right, nothing but Stella fool- 
ing around him. A. had no dead sweethearts, and nobody — beg 
pardon — spirit-fooled around him, though he was willing to be hugged 
by one for the sake of investigation and truth. D. momentarily antici- 
pated a filmy embrace from Julia, but Ella evidently didn't reciprocate 
his desire. 

Foster at one time seized A. 's hand, exclaiming, "God bless you, 
my dear boy, my son. I am thankful I at last may speak to you. 
I want you to know I am your father, who loved you in life and loves 
you still. lam near to you; a thin veil alone separates us. Good 
bye. I am your father, Abijah A ." 

" Good heavens ! " exclaimed A , "that was my father's name, 

his tone, his manner, his action." 

"And," said Foster, "it was a good influence; he was a man of 
large veneration." 

" Hold ! " said Foster, "here is another influence. It writes upon 
my arm. See, it is for you again, Mr. A ." 

He stripped up his coat sleeve, pulled back the white shirt sleeve, 
drew back the sleeve of the under shirt, exposed the skin of the fore- 
arm, rubbed it twice or three times briskly, and lo ! there appeared in 
letters an inch long the initials S. F. C. in pink, or the color of the 
skin when given a severe blow. "See," said Foster, " S. F. C, 
that is your friend, S. F. Coleman." 

"Yes," said A., as all gazed on the fading letters, " S. F. Coleman 
was my brother-in law, dead years ago in Illinois, and that is his 
writing as I live." 

D. now wanted the murdered man Charles to name the man 
whom he, Charles, had told him, D., he was afraid of, just before he was 
found dead in the street. D. wrote out a long list of names, and Fos« 



94 



THE SALEM SEER. 



ter marked out all but one. It was the right one, the man whom 
Charles had told D. he believed would kill him, and the man is a 
resident of high position in Australia. C. here called E. B. W. back, 
and asked questions which concerned domestic matters, and received 
strange and startling answers. 

A. requested Colonel Saunders to seek for the shade of J. W. Coff- 
roth, but before he could be found the influences left the medium and 
the seance closed. 

In conclusion we have just this to say. The seance was a great 
pleasure to the party. It was convincing that if Foster is a necro- 
mancer, he is the top of the heap. We came away just as we entered, 
without any decided opinion, except that there was a something we 
were not able to explain, and didn't care a black pin because we 
couldn't. We have given an outline of a small part of the interview, 
for it lasted two hours, but we have presented the points of every test 
made. What we have recorded is bare fact, unembellished. As an 
amusement, we were highly delighted with the seance. We have no 
expression to make as to theories concerning the means used to ac- 
complish what we saw and heard. Whatever the means used, there 
were no mistakes made. This man is awakening, with others of his 
class, considerable attention, and from the press deserves fairness in 
relation of fact, and that he has had in this article. 



THE SALEM SEER y 95 



CHAPTER IX. 

While lying on a sofa in an adjoining room, I heard 
a well-known editor from one of the leading St. Louis 
dailies tell Mr. Foster that it had been insinuated to him 
that that young man Bartlett visited the graveyards, took 
a list of names from the tomb and grave stones, espe- 
cially those of celebrated people, classified them, pro- 
cured all the information possible, and in that way gave 
great assistance to him in giving his seances. The editor 
said he hardly believed such a report, but thought pos- 
sibly Mr. Foster might like to hear how his phenomena 
were accounted for by different persons ! Mr. Foster 
informed the gentleman that Mr. Bartlett would not 
loan himself to that kind of business. I mention this, 
as many times since that conversation I have heard 
similar reports. Certainly a more ridiculous, preposter- 
ous and absurd explanation of the Foster phenomena 
could not be imagined. Foster traveling nearly all over 
the earth, giving communications in every known and 
some unknown languages, not having the slightest 
idea who were to visit him at any time or place, show 
the utter absurdity of such a conjecture. 

The most satisfactory clairvoyant I ever met was a 
lady physician by the name of Murphy. She first came 
to my notice while successfully treating a young lady, a 
relative of the Beecher family. This lady, if I remember, 
was thrown from a car, the accident causing hip trouble. 
It was considered a hopeless case. Mrs. Murphy, it is 
said, however, effected a permanent cure. She seemed 
to be able to look into the human form as though it were 



96 THE SALEM SEER. 

transparent. It was while interested in her phase of 
mediumship, or clairvoyance, that by chance I met, on 
Broadway, a friend by the name of Handy from Ken- 
tucky. As he had recently paid a visit to the city, I ex- 
pressed my surprise at seeing him so soon again. He 
replied that he had returned for medical treatment. 
"Why" I said, "you look the embodiment of perfect 
health. What is the matter?" He replied, "Inflamma- 
tion of the bladder." I said, "You are the very man 
I want to see, for you look in- perfect health, and certainly 
no one would suppose you had seen a sick day." He 
replied that he was a great sufferer from the complaint 
spoken of, but otherwise he was in good health. He 
weighed about two hundred and twenty-five pounds, 
was six feet in height, and a fine specimen of manhood. 
I said, "Come with me, and be examined by a clair- 
voyant. " He replied, ' ' No sir, I have no faith in them. " 
I replied, "I wish you would do so as a favor to me," 
explaining that I was interested, in a certain lady clair- 
voyant, and that he looked to be in such perfect health 
that I should not probably have another opportunity of 
meeting so fine a test subject. He finally consented. 
Mrs. Murphy went into a trance, and commencing at 
his head went down that six feet of manhood, describ- 
ing the condition of every inch of his body. She located 
the inflammation, and dictated a prescription. We asked 
that the prescription be dictated in English. After the 
interview Mr. Handy told me he came to New York ex- 
pressly to put himself under the care of Dr. Van Buren, 
that he had called on him once or twice, and had in 
his pocket a prescription to be filled. We immediately 
repaired to the drug store under the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
We showed the clerk the prescriptions of Dr. Van Buren 
and Mrs. Murphy and asked him if they were atallsim- 



THE SALEM SEER. gy 

ilar. He replied that there was so little difference he 
might say they were the same. I mention this test of 
clairvoyance, as I consider it the most satisfactory one 
in my experience. I was informed that a leading phy- 
sician frequently sent patients to her that she might 
clairvoyantlydiagnose their diseases. Is it not probable 
that this clairvoyant power might be used to advantage ? 
Below is a fair summing up of Foster's power, as 
viewed by the Alia California: 

AN HOUR WITH FOSTER. 

Four journalists spent an hour yesterday afternoon with Charles H. 
Foster, the spiritual medium. They were skeptical and suspicious. 
Before going into the room they had each written six or eight names 
of deceased friends on pieces of paper four inches long and one inch 
wide, which were then folded over five or six times longitudinally, 
with the name inside and no mark on the outside to distinguish them. 
They were all thrown into a hat, and none of the party could, by 
looking at the outside of any paper, know that he had written it, 
much less tell the name in it. None of the party had seen the medium 
before, nor were they introduced to him by name. 

We shall not undertake to give a consecutive narrative of what 
occurred, but only the main facts : 

First — Each of the four persons was astonished, far more than he 
had ever been by any sleight of hand by Hermann, Heller, Anderson, 
etc. 

Second — Many of the manifestations were inexplicable by any laws 
of mechanics or science mentioned in our books. 

Third — In more than a dozen cases Mr. Foster, without opening the 
folded papers, told the names in them correctly, and in every case 
mentioned some remarkable fact connected with the deceased person. 
One was drowned at sea, another shot in battle, another committed 
suicide, a fourth had died under very painful circumstances, and so 
on. 

Fourth — He gave the name of one deceased friend whose name was 
not written. 

Fifth — He gave no communications from Daniel Webster or other 
persons not acquaintances of some of the party. 

Sixth — He made no mistake worthy of note. 

7 



9 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

Seventh — In many cases he told not only the name of the deceased, 
but the person who wrote it. 

Eighth — After showing his bare arm with no mark on it, the letters 
" A. L.," the initials of the name of one of the "spirits," came out 
in red color on the arm before the eyes of the whole party. 

Ninth — Every question asked was answered. 

Tenth — Many of the questions were answered by raps on the under 
side of the table-top. Foster requested us to look under the table to 
see that there was no trickery about the rapping, but we did not take 
the trouble. The other " manifestations " were so much more impres- 
sive that we felt little interest in the rapping. 

Eleventh — Each of the party got- answers which he knew to be cor- 
rect, containing information not known to any other person in the 
room. 

Twelfth — One of the most wonderful manifestations was to get cor- 
rectly the name of a " spirit ' ' who he said was present, a friend of 
one of the party, but whose name had not been written. 

The writer of this must add, in justice to himself, that in all this he 
sees no proof of Spiritualism. He admits his inability to explain the 
facts, but he is unwilling to accept the explanation of anybody else. 
If Mr. Foster obtains his information from "spirits," it is to be 
regretted that they do not furnish clear evidence, unquestionable in 
its character to everybody, of their existence, and of the constitution 
of the sphere in which they now make their abode. 

Another writer in the Alia, Dec. 29, 1873, sa y s : 

IS IT AN INFERNAL AGENCY? 

A late number of the New York Catholic World, a magazine edited 
with much learning and ability, expresses the idea that the so-called 
spiritual manifestations are made by the agency of Satan, and should 
therefore be avoided by all persons who are anxious for the welfare of 
their souls. The truth of the reports of these " manifestations " and the 
good faith of the mediums are admitted, but the faithful are told that the 
Church has condemned them, and as all good spirits are in harmony with 
the Church, the evil spirits alone are working for the spread of the new 
doctrine. Satan gets the credit of being able to exercise miraculous 
powers, reveal the secrets of the tomb, and call up the spirits of the 
dead. This is, we believe, the accepted doctrine of the Catholic 
Church, and it is also received by many Protestants. Among scien- 
tific men generally the opinion is dominant that the "manifestations" 



HE SALEM SEER. 



99 



are only cunningly managed tricks, and that most of the favorable re- 
ports published of their doings are false. To neither of these theories 
do we subscribe. 

The subject has been forced on our attention by the sensation lately 
made in our city by the presence and sittings of a renowned medium, 
Mr. Foster, and also by our personal experiences, some of which have 
been briefly reported in our local news. Our search for "tests" or 
proofs of spiritualism has been a failure. There is no scarcity of 
" mediums " who say they can see and hear spirits ; but not one of 
them has produced satisfactory evidence. Nineteen out of twenty 
could tell us nothing and show us nothing of any interest. Their 
speeches in trance, real or pretended, amounted to nothing. But one 
man we have found who has an abnormal perception which enables 
him to read the secret thoughts of the living, though he may be, and we 
presume he is, sincere in saying that he converses with the spirits of 
the dead. This power is akin if not precisely similar to that of clair- 
voyance in somnambulic or mesmeric sleep, or the hypnotic condition, 
— abnormal states of the mind observed long before the spiritual theory 
came into favor. 

[From the N. Y. Graphic, Oct. 24, 1874.] 

One night a total stranger to Foster called at his rooms and said : 

" Foster, I don't believe in your humbug. Now, you never saw or 
heard of me, and I will bet you twenty dollars that you can't tell my 
name. I do it to test you. " 

" T-w-e-n-t-y d-o-l-l-a-r-s," repeated Foster; " twenty dollars that 
I can't tell your name? Well, sir (putting his hand to his brow), the 
spirit of your brother Clement tells me that your name is Alexander B. 
Corcorane." 

Mr. Corcorane was astonished, and took out his money to pay the 
medium, who pushed it back with a laugh. 

OLD HICKORY. 

"One day," said Mr. Frank Carpenter, whom we met at Mr. Fos- 
ter's yesterday — "one day a Mrs. Whitney, an utter stranger, came 
into Foster's room with a lock of coarse hair in her hand. It looked 
like fine bristles. Holding it up she asked the medium whose hair it 
was. Foster took it in his hand a moment, pressed it to his brow, and 
exclaimed : ' By the eternal, this is Andrew Jackson's hair I ' " 



103 THE SALEM SEE'R. 

It turned out that Mrs. Whitney's mother was an intimate friend of 
General Jackson, and that the bunch of bristles was really an heirloom 
from the head of Old Hickory himself. 

SENATOR ALEXANDER M'CLURE. 

One day (and everybody knows the story in Philadelphia) Alexan- 
der McClure, the old Greeley leader of Pennsylvania, came into the 
Continental Hotel with Colonel John B. Forney. Mr. McClure was 
very sad, for he had received news that his son was drowned at sea. 

"What do you think about it, Foster? " asked Colonel Forney. 

"Why, sir, the boy is not drowned at all," replied Foster. "He's 
alive and well, and you'll have a letter from him in a day or two, and 
then he will come home. ' ' 

Two days afterwards McClure met Foster, and said, with tears of 
gratitude : "Why, Foster, you were right. My boy is all safe. I 
had a letter from him to-day." 

[Golden Era, San Francisco, Sunday, 1873.] 

Foster — " Some one has called for the spirit of a person who died 

a violent death. His name— his name — now I get it — was . 

He was shot." 

B. — "That is a name I called for ; but I did not know that he was 
shot. It was never known what became of him." 

Foster — " Let me see. I am carried to the State of Ohio. To 
the city of Cincinnati. He starts from there and goes to the northern 
part of the State. He is overtaken and shot." 

B*.— " Those were precisely the circumstances as far as known." 

Foster (to B.) — "A dear little child comes behind you. Her name 
is " 

B. stated that the name was that of a little niece who died years ago. 
He had not written the name, nor had the child occurred to his mem- 
ory at that time until recalled by Foster. 

Foster (to A.) — " The form of a fair young girl now comes behind 
you. She presents you with two rosebuds. She died in young life 
from slow decline — consumption. It is Althea." 

A, acknowledged such an acquaintance in young life. The picture 
was vivid, and the impression startling — almost to fancy, for an in- 
stant, ''the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung 
by seraphim, whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor." But then 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 01 

the illusion might have been nothing else than Foster's incessant cigar 
smoke. Merely smoke and nothing more. 

Foster announced the presence of a spirit which had been called for 
by one of the company. It was demanded that the spirit indicate where 
he died to prove his identity. Foster suggested to write down a list 
of places, including the right locality. The list was written in this 
form : ' ' Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, New York, Syracuse, Utica, 
Oswego, " and handed to Foster. With scarcely a glance, his pencil 
circled the last name like a flash, and then leading up the column also 
encircled " New York, " the answer being correctly given, "Oswe- 
go, New York. ' ' The same test was successfully given when names 
had been placed on separate strips and rolled up in pellets. 

Such are the arts practiced by the so-called spiritual medium, Fos- 
ter, and such a few of the curious examples casually mentioned of a 
prolonged exhibition of his powers in the presence of a party of gen- 
tlemen who take no stock of a supernatural character, believing noth- 
ing beyond the verification of their own senses, even should Elias and 
the prophets come to tell them, without full ocular demonstration. 

These sort of manifestations are dismissed by the ignorant and 
superstitious as pertaining to the arts of necromancy ; by the religious 
bigot as machinations of the devil ; by the advanced adherents of 
Swedenborgianism they are imagined to proceed from disembodied 
spirits ; and by the philosopher they are believed to pertain to some 
natural force not yet fathomed by scientific research. The reader can 
take his choice. 



102 THE SALEM SEEK. 



CHAPTER X. 

Outside of the medical profession, I think few 
people realize the great number of deaths caused by- 
childbirth and cancer. While associated with Mr. 
Foster, I was > constantly surprised to hear him daily- 
give answer to the question, "How did she die?" 
" Childbirth." " How did so and so die?" "Cancer." 
At the seances given at the South, nearly all the male 
spirits who manifested through Mr. Foster were shot, 
either at home or on the battlefield. 

I quote a fragment of a letter which appeared in the 
N.Y. Graphic, from the pen of the husband, I believe, 
of Madam Blavatsky. 

A CONVERT TO SPIRITISM. 

To the Editor of the Daily Graphic. 

The medium, C. Foster being mentioned to me, I decided upon going 
to visit him. Accordingly I called at his house on Saturday last 
(November 28), at seven P. M. The medium was not in when I called, 
and I sat waiting for him alone, without seeing or talking to any one. 
As soon as he appeared I told him the object of my visit, without men- 
tioning my name ; upon which he immediately took a seat at his table, 
inviting me to do the same. By his instructions I then wrote on 
several small pieces of paper, which I afterwards rolled into pellets, the 
names of dead relatives and friends, most of them in the Georgian 
language. This language is spoken in this country only by two ot my 
friends and myself. The names were the following: Stephen Mour- 
vanoff and Resodeda, my grandparents; Nicolai Tnadje, Bejan 
Khamashouridsey and Vladimir Nicoladjey, the names of my friends 
in the university, all of them now deceased. To presume that Foster 
could have known my name or those of my friends would be to pre- 
sume the most absurd impossibility. He could not have read them 



THE SALEM SEER. 103 

even if, instead of being in closely rolled up pellets, they had been 
lying open before his eyes, for they were, as I have said before, written 
in Georgian. He pressed some of them to his forehead, leaving others 
untouched. Still, the very moment we were seated, the medium 
said to me the following : 

"Bejan Khamashouridsey greets his friend Betanelly," repeating 
one after the other and as correctly all the Georgian names I had writ- 
ten out. Further, he told me he saw the spirit of an old woman close 
to me, describing most perfectly my grandmother, and repeating, 
"Resodeda, Resodeda is here; she kisses her grandson." Arising 
from his chair Foster embraced and kissed me in the same peculiar 
way as my grandmother did when alive. I was perfectly dumb- 
founded, so natural and life-like was the performance of the medium. 
No one in this country knew anything of my past life, nor did 1 ever 
speak to any one about the names of my friends of my youth. I never 
was a spiritualist, and believed it till recently to be all unmitigated 
humbug. 

M. C. Betanelly. 

November 3o, 1874. 
430 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

"C." writes the following from Rochester : 

Having heard that Mr. Foster had on a number of occasions brought 
the spirits into requisition to read from closed books, I resolved to 
apply that test. On Wednesday afternoon, when the weather was 
remarkably fine, I repaired to the residence of Mr. Foster, 14 North 
Clinton Street, taking with me a book which I had taken from my 
library from among a series of thirty -five volumes in an uniform style 
of binding. I did not know the title of the book when I took it. 
Seated at the table opposite the medium, in an apartment fully lighted 
by the sun, I was ready to hear a spirit read from the volume I had 
brought. The medium announced that it would be necessary first to 
find a spirit who could read from the book, as all did not seem to 
possess that power. He requested me to write upon strips of paper 
the names of a few persons who were dead. I wrote ten or more 
names and folded each so tightly that it was impossible for the names 
to be read by mortals without unfolding them. These papers were 
placed in the centre of the table, and the medium lifted one by one in 
his fingers until at length he got a response by raps, and said he had 
found a spirit who would read from my book. He threw the paper to 
me without opening, and taking a pencil wrote a name, which proved 



104 



THE SALEM SEER. 



to be the same as that in the paper he had given me, and was one that 
I had written in the first place. It was the name of a citizen long 
known in Rochester, who had been much before the public in life. 
He had held many important local offices and was twice mayor. 

Having thus found a reading spirit, the medium requested me to 
place my book tipon the floor under the table, which I did, taking 
care, however, to put one foot upon it, which act I d id without any 
direction. I know that the medium had not had his hand upon the 
book or seen it opened. I resolved that it should remain closed until 
the experiment was concluded. I know that the book was on the 
floor under my foot from the time I placed it there till I took it up 
after the reading. 

The medium announced that the spirit was ready to read through 
him, and he requested me to take down the words as he should repeat 
them, which I did as follows : 

" The night that succeeded was wild and melancholy." The be- 
ginning of chapter thirty-first. 

The medium directed me to open the book and see if the spirit was 
correct. I took the book from under my foot upon the floor and 
opened it. I then first knew the title of the volume I had brought. 
It was "The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish," an Indian tale of the Con- 
necticut Valley, written by J. Fenimore Cooper, and was one of a 
series of thirty-five by the same author. On turning to the thirty-first 
chapter in this volume, I found that it opened with the sentence above 
quoted and which the medium had dictated to me to write. The quota- 
tion was perfect to a letter. 

Now, will somebody explain how this medium could make an exact 
quotation from a novel published forty years ago, and taken by me by 
chance from a row of thirty -five of the same series for the purpose for 
this experiment? This cannot be done by what they call mind-read- 
ing, for certainly I did not have the passage in my mind, and did not 
even know the title of the volume I had taken with me. No mechani- 
cal contrivance would be available to perform such an act. At no 
time during the interview with the medium was this book out of my 
control. He did not put hand or foot upon it, but I had both upon it. 

Some who will not admit that this feat was performed by an invisible 
spirit, may think that the writer was in collusion with the medium to 
deceive the public. If you be of the latter, Mr. Editor, please exer- 
cise your prerogative and consign this manuscript to the waste basket, 
and let that portion of the public who will not make inquiry for them- 
selves wait for a more reliable witness than one who has been a skeptic 



THE SALEM SEEK. 105 

about spiritual matters for more than forty years, and who might have 
remained so forever but for the inquiry he has made in the few days 
just past. 

I remember one evening calling with Mr. Foster 
upon Mrs. S., who had recently moved into unfur- 
nished apartments. Mrs. S. said to Mr. Foster: "Please 
give us some physical manifestations. My parlor is 
just the place, heavy blankets being over the windows, 
to keep out the glare of the sun. One small wooden 
table is the only furniture. Let us take in three chairs, 
sit around the table, and see what will transpire." 
"No," replied Mr. Foster, describing at the same time 
how unpleasant it was for him to sit in the dark. Mrs. 
S. persisted, "Do, please, just this once." Finally Mr. 
Foster consented under these conditions : the table was 
to be placed under the chandelier, we three should take 
hold of hands around the table, matches should be 
placed on the table, Mrs. S. agreeing to light the gas 
the moment Mr. Foster so requested. We sat in si- 
lence a moment, when Mr. Foster said the spirit of M., 
whom we all had known in life, was there. Mr. Foster 
said that he saw the spirit perfectly, and that she said if 
we would keep quiet she would dance, and that the 
noise from the heels o"f her shoes on the bare floor 
would give the tone and the character of the dance. 
She did so. It was a success. Within a few moments 
Foster said, "Light the gas." He was dripping 
with perspiration, which showed his peculiar nervous 
condition during physical manifestations. We had not 
moved from our positions, nor unclasped our hands. 
After a short rest, the medium recuperated, and we 
turned off the gas the second time. Mr. Foster then 
said the spirits told him they would cool the room ( it 
being a hot summer's night). Immediately waves of 



106 THE SALEM SEER. 

wind rushed through the room, so cool that it seemed as 
though they came direct from an iceberg. M. immedi- 
ately returned and finished the dance. Whenever I 
think of that night, I can distinctly hear the clitter- 
clatter of the spirit dancers' shoes. 

\_Written for The Troy Whig.] 

Out of twenty-two slips, responses were received from seventeen of 
the names written on them, and the slips were handed over to be 
opened with no mistake made. , But stranger still, the names were 
given of several persons who had not been thought of. I had written 
the name, for instance, of Mr. M., a good-natured gentleman who was 
thrice married during his lifetime. This gentleman was announced. 
" He is here," said Mr. Foster, " and Jenny is with him." Jenny it 
appears was the name of the last wife, who preceded him to the 
" other shore "; but none of us knew it until our "memory was 
refreshed ' ' by the information received . 

" Mrs. K , ' ' said Mr. Foster to one of the ladies with me, " I see a 

beautiful little spirit standing near you — a little blonde, with golden 
hair ; she is the spirit you now mourn. That is the one, he added, 

handing Mrs. K. a slip. She says her name is " (speaking it in full). 

As a stronger test, Mrs. K. asked if the child would tell her the name 
of a certain little song which her papa used to sing to her to make her 
laugh. "Yes," said Mr. Foster, as the raps were heard, and the 
request was made that it should be written out through the medium. 
"She says she can not write," replied Mr. Foster, " she is too little. 
But, never mind, uncle Robert is with her and he will write it for her." 
The name of the song (a very unusual one) was immediately written 
out by Mr. Foster, and "Uncle Robert " was instantly recognized by 
Mrs. K. as a relative whose name had not been put down on any of 
the slips, and who had been dead about twenty years. Mr. Foster 
then looked up to the lady and asked : " What was the matter 
with the little one's throat ? She puts her hand up to it so, ' ' describing 
a gesture of discomfort that the child used frequently to make during 
the last months of her life, on account of a weakness in the throat fol- 
lowing a severe attack of whooping cough. 

Mrs. K received another marvelous test of Mr. Foster's strange 

power, whatever it should be called. "I see," he said to her, "a 
beautiful spirit — not beautiful in face, but beautiful in nature — and she 



THE SALEM SEER. 



107 



bears a wreath of fresh flowers. She died recently, and she gives me her 

nam? as ' ' (giving it in full) . Mrs. K instantly recalled a friend, 

known in Troy to but one family circle, a young lady who died at a 

distance about six weeks ago, and to whose sister Mrs. K had sent 

flowers of the kind named to be placed upon the casket. The young 
lady was called upon to name the place where she died — a small and dis- 
tant village in another State, and the name was given correctly. I then 

reminded Mrs. K that she wished to question her friend about an 

engagement of marriage with a person who had talked with unpleas- 
ant freedom of the matter after her death with great earnestness. 
"But she tells me," said he, " that she was not engaged to that man, 
and she wants you to write and tell her mother and sister so " — thus 
naming the two persons who had been most grieved by the report 
referred to, but whom the medium certainly never heard of. To 
make this test more perfect still, I asked Mr. Foster if the name of 
the young man referred to could be given. Three raps came, and 

Mrs. K was asked to write down six or seven names, among them 

the right one, roll them up in little pellets, and throw them down on 
the table. She did so, and Mr. Foster's pencil snapped one of them 
out to her, which she opened and pronounced correct. "But," said 
he, with a smile, "your friend says that you haven't spelled the name 
quite right, " and a change was made which none of us knew to be 
needed until after the seance was over and the correction inquired 
into. Mrs. K had misspelled the name. 

After various other communications, Mr. Foster looked up and 
asked, " Who is this jolly spirit ? " and he threw over a slip to me, 
requesting me to open it. It was the one on which I had written the 
suggestion that I should like to have some ''jolly fellow," smarter than 
myself, give the sitting a better direction than I had marked out — a 
thing that had been done so palpably that I had spoken of it several 
times, although with no thought or remembrance of the written 
request I had made. 

"Well," continued Mr. Foster, "who is the smartest spirit ? Is it 
this one — this one — this one?" No answer came, and one of the 
ladies with me — a keen wit — exclaimed, " Modesty forbids. " ' Three 
loud raps sounded on the table, and the "medium" laughed. " That's it 
precisely," said he ; "the raps won't come, but they point me to this 
paper. This is the smartest spirit here." I opened the slip, and 
found on it the name of one of the most genial, learned and distin- 
guished men that ever lived, a person who, it was claimed, appeared 
to me at my first sitting with Mr. Foster, and whose name I had writ- 



108" THE SALEM SEER. 

ten down in the second instance, but with no thought whatever of the 
striking use that was made of it. 

Well, this is what I know about Foster— a few facts. The "gentle 
reader" of the Whig may draw his own conclusions. There I can't 
help him. 

[From The Troy Press, March 6, fSyj.] 

In simple ways Mr. Foster designated fifteen other persons according 
to my folded slips and described them accurately, whenever he desired 
to do so. He made almost a mental photograph of one of my relatives 
— an aunt who died fifteen years ago, and whose memory has been 
especially dear to me. After he had given the shape of her face, her 
apparent age, the color of her hair, and a sad, thoughtful expression 
that especially characterized her face, I added : ' ' She had brown 
eyes." Mr. Foster instantly looked up, as if into her face, and said, 
"No ; hazel eyes." I afterwards learned that he was right and I 
wrong about it. So he had not merely been reading my thoughts — 
"mind-reading," as the term is. 

But I can't stop to go over all these things. I'll mention one more. 
I put on one of my slips the name of a young lady whom I last saw a 
dozen years ago and never heard from afterwards. She had the con- 
sumption, I supposed, at the time, and I could not believe her to be 
still alive, though I had never been informed of her death. Mr. Fos- 
ter gave me her name, described her accurately, designated the place 
where I had last seen her (a distant and inconspicuous one), and 
declared that he saw her standing by my side, with a bouquet of white 
flowers in her hand. When I bade her good-bye, twelve years ago, 
as I now remember, an incident I had entirely forgotten, the young 
lady had just taken a bouquet of white flowers from a piano on which 
it stood, and was holding them in her hand. 

[From The Cleveland Herald, Jan. 5, 1876.] 

"This person died from an accident," asserted the medium posi- 
tively ; "did any of you write the name of a person who died from an 
accident ? " 

For a short time no one replied, and the reporter thought that Fos- 
ter had been caught. At length Mr. Brown stated that he had, now 
he came to think of it, written the name of such a person. 

"Write a question," requested the medium. 

Brown did so, and Foster pressed the folded paper to his forehead 



THE SALEM SEER. 



109 



as before, and commenced to write rapidly. The following communi- 
cation was received : 

"Dear Brown : I am glad to make myself known to you at this 
time. I am very happy in my present condition, and would state to 
you that my death occurred from the accident I received, being thrown 
from a carriage. Eliza A. Brown." 

" Is that correct ? " asked the medium. 

The reply came that it was in every respect, but the answer was not 
needed, as the astonishment on Brown's face was of itself a sufficient 
indication. 

Brown then wrote another question and received a satisfactory 
reply. 

Foster now addressed himself again to the German reporter. 
" Your grandfather on your father's side comes to you; he is one of 
your guardian spirits." He then turned once more to Mr. Brown 
and said, "There are three others with Eliza Brown in the spirit 
world ; your dear father who loves you, your mother and your sister." 

Mr. Brown, whose face had become quite pale, acknowledged that 
those were the only dear relatives of his who had died. 

Foster next picked up one of the slips of paper that the Herald 
representative had written on just after entering the apartment, and 
pronounced the name thereon to be that of a person who was living. 
The reporter unfolded it and found it was really the name of the liv- 
ing man he had written in expectation of possibly fooling the medium. 



110 THE SALEM SEER. 



CHAPTER XL 

Mr. Foster was advertised and known the world 
over as a lest medium. He was willing- to be sub- 
mitted to the most crucial tests without any conditions 
or paraphernalia ; willing to give his seances on bare 
floors, with uncovered tables ; willing to go to any 
house, studio or hotel. I do not wish to assert that 
upon all and every occasion he met with great suc- 
cess ; but that he was willing to have his power tested 
in any way which might be proposed by intelligent 
men and women. He felt grieved and disappointed 
that scientific men did not avail themselves of the op- 
portunity to investigate the phenomena which were 
continually manifested through him. He gave several 
sittings to Prof. Agassiz, and expressed an earnest 
hope that he would become interested in the phenom- 
ena, and give his views to the public. Mr. Foster said 
upon one occasion : ' ' Some day I hope a scientific man 
like Tyndall will take hold of me, live with me, submit 
me to every test, and then give his impressions to the 
world. After that I might be better understood. '"' 

John Ashburner, M. D. , a member of the Royal Irish 
Academy, is a conspicuous authority in the scientific 
world. In his "Notes and Studies in the Philosophy 
of Animal Magnetism and Spiritualism" he has many 
references to Mr. Foster, and among other things 
says : 

When Charles Foster was in London, in 1863, he was often in my 
house, and numerous friends had opportunities of witnessing the phe- 
nomena which occurred in his presence. It is not necessary to enlarge 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 1 1 

this volume by a long list of names. It may, however, be stated that 
many of them were persons of rank and consideration in the higher 
walks of London society. The second morning that Mr. Foster called 
upon me was about two weeks after his arrival in. England. Acci- 
dentally, at the same time, arrived at my door Lady C. H., and her 
aunt, the wife of the Rev. A. E. I urged them to come in, and placed 
them on chairs at the sides of my dining table. Their names had not 
been mentioned. Mr. Foster having retired to the further extremity 
of the room, so as not to be able to see what the ladies wrote, I in- 
duced them each to write upon separate slips of paper six names of 
friends who had departed this world. These they folded into pellets, 
which were placed together. Mr. Foster coming back to the table, 
immediately picked up a pellet, and addressed himself to Mrs. A. E. 
"Alice," he said, which made the lady start, and ask how he knew 
her name. He replied, " Your cousin, John Whitney, whose name 
you wrote on that little piece of paper, stands by your side, and de- 
sires me to say that he often watches over you and reads your thoughts, 
which are always pure and good." Then he turned towards me and 
said, ' ' Alice's uncle is smiling benignantly , as he is looking towards 
you. He says you and he were very intimate friends." I said, "I 
should like to know the name of my friend," and Mr. Foster instantly 
replied, " Gaven. His Christian name will appear on my right arm." 
The arm was bared, and there appeared in red letters fully one inch 
and a quarter long, the name " William " raised on the skin of his arm. 
Certainly, William Gaven was my dear old friend, and the uncle of 
the lady whose name is Alice. 

On one occasion, the Honorable Mrs. W. C. and her sister-in-law 
desired to try some experiments in my dunkcr -hammer, a room the 
Baron von Reichenbach had taught me how to darken properly for 
experiments on the od force and the odic light emanating from living 
organized bodies. This room afforded opportunities for marvelous 
manifestations. When the light was excluded, the two ladies were 
seated on one side of a heavy rose- wood octagonal table with drawers, 
weighing at least seventy or eighty pounds. Mr. Foster and I were 
on chairs opposite to them. Suddenly a great alarm seized Mr. Fos- 
ter ; he grasped my right hand, and beseeched me not to quit my hold 
of him, for he said there was no knowledge where the spirits might con- 
vey him. I held his hand, and he was floated in the air towards the 
ceiling. At one time Mrs. W. C. felt a substance on her head, and 
putting up her hands, discovered a pair of boots above her head. At 
last Mr. Foster's aerial voyage ceased, and a new phenomenon pre- 



1 1 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

sented itself. Some busts, as large as life, resting upon book-cup- 
boards seven feet high, were taken from their places. One was sud- 
denly put upon Mrs. W. C.'s lap ; others, on my obtaining a light, 
were found on the table. I removed these to a corner of the room, 
and put out the light. Then, the table was lifted into the air, and 
remained there for some seconds. Then, it gently descended into the 
place it had before occupied, with the difference that the top was 
turned downwards, and rested on the carpet. And more to the 
same effect. 

The utter simplicity of Mr. Foster' s modus operandi is also in his 
favor. He has no paraphernalia — absolutely none. No cabinet, with 
a little aperture in front and the dark behind, no dimly lighted room, 
no ropes, or instruments, or contrivances of any kind. The sunlight 
is welcome in the daytime, and the full blaze of the gas in the evening. 
An ordinary table, a supply of writing paper and a few pencils con- 
stitute his entire stock in trade. Legerdemain which demands no 
more elaborate contrivances than these must have supreme reliance on 
its own ingenuity. 

Mr. Ashburner's account recalls to my mind the fol- 
lowing : About 12 o' clock one summer night, we met 
Oregon Wilson and one or two friends on Broadway. 
Mr. Wilson, as usual, was in a lively frame of mind, 
and insisted upon our going to his studio to look 
at some new curios, which he said were of great 
value. This, however, was only a pretext, as his real 
object was to induce Mr. Foster to give some physical 
manifestations. Mr. Foster was quite friendly with 
him, and he had often tried to persuade Mr. Foster 
to give him and his friends a dark seance ; but Mr. 
Foster had alwaj'S refused. We had been in the studio 
a few moments only when Mr. Wilson turned off the 
gas without giving any warning, and we were in 
utter darkness. What occurred that night will not be 
forgotten by any of us, for it seemed for a few moments 
as though the world had come to an end; that the 
building had been blown up by dynamite, or that an 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 1 3 

earthquake was upon us ! It seemed as though every- 
thing in the studio would be broken and ruined. 
Even I was frightened, for it seemed as though there 
was danger of being hurt. We simultaneously said, 
"Wilson, light the gas," and when the gas was light- 
ed, we found only a few things disarranged ; and it is 
a mystery to this day how to account for the hurlubrelu. 
Poor Foster was faint. He could hardly stand, was 
pale as death, and there was a cold perspiration on his 
forehead. Wilson was not disturbed. He laughed 
heartily, seemed to think it a good joke, and said to 
Foster, "That is first-rate, old man, better than I sup- 
posed you could do. 

What a shaking-up ! Charlie, how did you do it ? " 
Walking home Foster seemed to feel very bad. He 
said people had no right to treat him that way, and 
that no one not having the peculiar power which he 
had could understand the mental and physical suffer- 
ing that he went through during an experience such 
as he had just had at the studio. He did not blame 
Wilson, as Wilson only meant it as a joke, but that to 
him it was a very serious matter. 

I know positively that no amount of money would 
induce Mr. Foster to sit in the dark for the purpose of 
producing physical manifestations. He did not wish to 
stand the pressure, and while we might say his reason 
was not afraid, his heart was. 

Is it not possible that we all have an undeveloped 
power which we might call the sixth sense, which 
has only been cultivated in a few? Could we not by 
a course of study develop this sense so that it might 
average with the other five ? Is not the Mind as yet 
an unknown god? We certainly have but little com- 
prehension of our own individual minds. Our thoughts 



114 



THE SALEM SEER. 



at times almost frighten us with their newness and 
mysteries. Well did the great philosopher say, 
"Know thyself/' Would it not be well to give more 
time and study to the capacities and wonders of the 
human mind ? Would it not be well for the univer- 
sities to give this subject more attention ? Might they 
not have new classes formed devoted to the cultivation 
of the sixth sense, which might bring forth explanations 
which would be revelations to the world. Possibly this 
is the "missing link," the five senses being wofully 
incomplete without the sixth. 

We quote a word from Washington : 

Foster stands pre-eminent as a worker of marvels. There is no doubt 
that he represents an unknown force, which displays itself in messages 
from the dead and queer revelations sometimes in the lives of the 
questioners. He has stood the test of some of the keenest and most 
analytical minds in Rome, London, Paris, New York, Melbourne and 
San Francisco. The tests are entirely mental and utterly removed 
from the possibility of aid by paraphernalia or machinery. Professor 
Huxley, Stuart Mill. Victor Emmanuel, the King of Italy have sought 
this ' ' bird or prophet, ' ' shade or devil, and have gone away more 
puzzled than when they came. Whatever it may be, psychology, mag- 
netism, spirits of health or goblins damned, Foster is a curious study 
to those interested in abstruse studies and supernatural phenomena. 

We dropped in upon him last Thursday night, to find two ex-con- 
gressmen, both distinguished lawyers, about entering upon an investi- 
gation. These gentlemen have national reputations as investigators, 
and are not only profoundly versed in the law, but add to that in- 
formation a shrewd knowledge of human nature. They opened with 
Foster as they would have done with the late District government, had 
that organization been before them. That is, Foster was regarded 
as a trickster and mountebank, and they were there to expose him. 
Foster, recognizing the situation, calmly put himself in the hands of the 
enemy. He left the room while the names were being written, and 
throughout the seance submitted to their cautious proceedings. 

We are not at liberty to give the details of this interesting trial, for 
the affair soon passed from mere test fit for publication to personal mat- 
ters too sacred and confidential for print. It was interesting to witness 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 1 5 

the hard skepticism of these shrewd minds weaken and disappear 
before the startling facts that could not be disposed of upon other 
grounds than that claimed by spiritualists. Of all classes, that of the 
bar is the best qualified for such investigation. The training and 
culture given the legal mind by the law of evidence facilitate sifting 
the true from the false, and enable their possessor to recognize a fact 
whenever presented. At the end of two hours' searching inquiry one 
of these eminent men said, as he threw himself back in his chair, 
' ' I cannot understand this. It is the most remarkable event that ever 
occurred to me." And the other added, " Well, I give it up — it is past 
my comprehension." 

We consider the following fairly good tests : 

To one answer I was told the party would attach her own signa- 
ture. This was done in a style of writing wholly unlike that of the 
body of the communication which the medium had written. It was a 
peculiar signature and closely resembled that of the party who has 
been dead about ten years. 

I closed the interview after some further tests and went away con- 
founded, if not convinced. Being naturally materialistic in my views, 
I was not as well prepared to receive this as a demonstration of spirits 
as one would be who had always recognized a spiritual existence. 

In reflecting subsequently upon the interview above described, I was 
not content to leave the matter in that shape, but resolved to make an- 
other visit to Mr. Foster and apply further tests made with more delib- 
eration. Accordingly I prepared a number of questions addressed 
to a friend — a well-known citizen who died two years ago. These 
questions were written as before, and so concealed that they could not 
be read without unrolling the paper on which they were written. The 
questions were so framed that a person not familiar with the subjects 
could not answer them intelligently though permitted to read them, as 
this medium was not. The deceased citizen was called up; and the 
questions were answered as he only could have answered them. 

After my first interview, I was told by a citizen to whom I related 
the facts that this medium was only a mind-reader (whatever that may 
be), and that he read the papers by knowing what vvas in my mind. 
To test this, I requested a friend to prepare a question in writing and 
put it in a sealed envelope, which he did. I presented it to Mr. 
Foster, not myself knowing the contents of the envelope. Without 
seeing the contents of the envelope the medium gave a correct answer, 
which involved the giving of names of two well-known deceased 



n6 THE SALEM SEER. 

citizens. I first saw or knew what the question was when I received 
the answer. This was a complete refutation of the idea that the 
medium read the question in my mind, for it was not there. 

Other things transpired at these interviews which, to say the least, 
surprised me; but I have given perhaps quite as much as your readers 
will care to see. You are quite at liberty to give my name to any 
person who cares to learn from me more than I have stated. It seems 
to me that if a person cares to make a test of mediumistic powers the 
presence of Mr. Foster affords an excellent opportunity. I understand 
that he will remain in town a few days in a quiet way to interview 
such as may call upon him. C. 

Before going into the room we wrote on a slip of paper, which we 
put into our pocket, the name of a near relative who had died within 
six months— a lady; but fearing that Mr. Foster might possibly have 
heard of the occurrence, and could anticipate our purpose, we wrote 
the lady's name as he could by no possibility have ever known or 
heard it — that is, we wrote the maiden name, which she had borne 
forty years ago, and which was known to not more than three or four 
persons in this part of the country. We had folded this name in and 
in the slip, to make sure it could not be seen without considerable time 
and trouble in opening it. We had scarcely thrown this slip down on 
the table in front of Mr. Foster, with what we supposed to be the 
rather sarcastic remark that it would do for him to begin on, when he 

said : " Mr. the spirit of an old lady is here. It is your mother. She 

will control my hand and write the name (though it doesn't seem to 
be her own) which you have folded inside that piece of paper. Ah, 
yes," added Mr. Foster, as he finished the communication, " I under- 
stand; it was her maiden name." The message was signed correctly, 
in accordance witl the slip, and moreover it conveyed a request 
which, although very peculiar, and one that no medium would be 
likely to think of, was precisely the thing that she would most of all 
things desire to have gratified. 

We considered this a pretty good beginning for our sitting with Mr. 
Foster; but, to try him still more severely, we asked if he could give 
us the names of other spirits present, without our writing them on the 
slips at all. He instantly replied that he could; that the room was 
full of spirits belonging to our mother's side of the family, and that 
some of them had the power — not very frequent in his case — to cause 
strong " physical manifestations " in connection with the mental tests 
which we were receiving:. At this moment, one end of the heavy sofa 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 1 7 

at the side of the room jumped up two or three inches and moved out 
toward our table. "Your Uncle John is here," said Mr. Foster— 
" your mother's brother, who died many years ago. He gives his 
name (although you do not know him), because you have heard your 
mother speak of him, and it affords you a test of the impossibility of 
the medium's having any knowledge of him, except as you verify it 
yourself. It was not he, however, who moved the sofa; that was your 

uncle, Washington M . He was murdered at the south fifty years 

ago, he tells me, in the old slavery days, and that is the reason your 
family could never get a satisfactory account of his death." 

How in the world Mr. C. H. Foster obtained the information here 
given, we don't pretend to say. But he stated the facts correctly, 
though the spirits supposed to be present had certainly not been on 
the earth since he was born, were not in our own mind before "put- 
ting in their appearance ' ' at the sitting, and had been almost forgot- 
ten by us even in name. Their very grave-stones, indeed, had prob- 
ably been out of sight for a quarter of a century. 

Following these "manipulations," several other members of the 
same branch of the family were heard from in the same remarkable 
way — without even the slips of paper to give a clue to them and they 
could not have been known or heard of by Mr. Foster — that is certain. 

We referred to a lad who accompanied us in calling upon Mr. Fos- 
ter. During the seance, it was suggested that he step across the 
room, and write the name of some young friend of his who had died. 
He did so, and when the folded slip was placed on the table, three 
raps indicated that the spirit corresponding to the name was present. 

"Yes," said Mr. Foster, " it is little . She is your cousin, 

who loved you very dearly, and is very glad you came here. She 
points to that rocking-chair in the corner, behind me, and says she 
will go and sit in it. If she can, she will make it rock." 

At this point we of course looked at the chair, but so many other 
" signs and wonders" crowded upon us that in a moment we had for- 
gotten all about it, when suddenly the lad looked up in amazement, 
and pointed to the distant rocking-chair, which surely enough was 
rocking away vigorously. When the fact was noticed and acknowl- 
edged, raps came in all parts of the room, and the sofa jumped out 
of place once more, as if in confirmation of our acknowledgment. 



1 1 8 THE SALEM SEER. 



CHAPTER XII. 

We left San Francisco on the steamer MacGregor, 
February 2, 1874, en route for Melbourne, Australia. 
Our first stop was at Honolulu, where we landed late at 
night on Feb. 11. The city was very dark. The 
perfume of flowers was remarkably fragrant along the 
drive to the hotel, and a pleasant contrast to the odor 
of salt water, which we had been inhaling for the 
last nine days. 

As our schedule time gave us only one day in Hono- 
lulu, we arose early the next morning to improve our 
opportunity of seeing the city. The picture from our 
window was most delightful, and it seemed for the 
moment that we had. been dropped in the midst of 
the Garden of Eden, so beautiful were the flowers, 
trees and shrubbery presented to our view. After 
a tropical breakfast of fruit and fish, we started on 
a drive to the Palla. The views along the way were 
grand, and as we ascended the hill of the Palla, we 
found the scenery equal to that of Switzerland. It 
is said that in olden times criminals were forced over 
these towering rocks into the sea, to expiate their 
crimes. We stopped at Queen Emma's garden, on our 
return, and brought back many fresh flowers to dec- 
orate the steamer. Returning to the city about four 
o'clock, we noticed the court-yard was crowded 
with people, both native and foreign. Inquiring 
the cause of the excitement, we were told it was 
election day, and that the result of the election would 
soon be announced from the balcony of the court- 



THE SALEM SEEK. 1 1 9 

house. The candidates were King Kalakaua and 
£ueen Emma. The natives of Honolulu were almost 
unanimous in their preference for Queen Emma, while 
King Kalakaua was the preference in the majority of 
the adjacent islands. We entered the court-yard and 
stood with the crowd, aw T aiting the announcement. In 
a few moments one of the members came out on the 
porch, and in a short speech said that King Kalakaua 
was elected. Immediately the scene was appalling ! 
The native Kanakas seemed to have expected this 
result, for underneath their coats were concealed all 
kinds of missiles, which they hurled at the speaker's 
head. All was confusion and terror. There was a 
riot. Expecting trouble, the court-house had been 
securely fastened, but heavy rails were taken from the 
fence, and used to break in the doors, and we witnessed 
what is termed the "gutting" of a building. For a 
moment one might imagine they were in a Calvinis- 
tic hell ; these Kanaka blacks looked like infuriated 
devils. They rushed madly into the court-house, took 
several of the members by force, and hurled them 
through the windows — sash, glass and mangled 
bodies falling upon the ground together. The one 
or two who were not killed by the fall were im- 
mediately beaten to death by the angry natives. 
The court-house was entirely emptied. After the 
members were disposed of, through the windows 
came the law books, state papers, records and fur- 
niture. The building was gutted. As soon as the 
riot broke out, word was sent to the American and 
British war ships. The soldiers responded in double- 
quick. They were heartily cheered as they came into 
the court-yard, but it was too late — all was over. The 
majority of the voters for the king were lying dead in 



I 20 THE SALEM SEER. 

the court-yard, shaded by the tropical trees. So ended 
an eventful day in Honolulu, which began with so 
much pleasure, surrounded with such beautiful scenery, 
sunshine and flowers — ending in shadow and showing 
the terrible result of unrestrained passion in the lower 
grades of man. 

Our next landing was at the Feejee Islands, and I 
continue to diverge from the main topic of Spiritualism, 
to give a few rambling thoughts. 

I have noticed a number of articles in the daily 
press recently upon cannibalism. It seems to be a mania 
with some writers to originate — entirely in their own 
brains — the most fictitious stories about cannibalism — 
picturing the savage in a wild, ferocious state of mad- 
ness for human flesh ! I have had some experience as 
a traveller among those termed savage tribes, and on 
this voyage our vessel, the MacGregor, stopped for, 
the first time, and up. to that date, it was the only 
steamer that had ever landed at a place called Kan- 
davra, Feejee Islands. It was thought by the manager 
of this line of steamers that it would be profitable to 
make a landing there each trip, taking on a goodly 
supply of fine fruits — bananas, oranges, lemons, etc. 
The experiment, however, proved to be a failure ; for, 
as we were sailing slowly out, we suddenly ran on a 
coral reef. We remained on this reef for about one 
week, and finally abandoning the MacGregor were 
taken on board of another vessel. 

While living on the reef, I w T ent ashore each day, 
accompanied by a Feejee, who came down from the 
city of Levaka to act as guide and interpreter to our 
captain. We visited a Feejee village, about four miles 
inland, daily, which afforded us an opportunity to 
study what would naturally be supposed to be as 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 2 1 

barbarous a race as inhabited the earth. The interpreter 
told us that these natives had never seen a white man. 
They had never in any way received any enlighten- 
ment nor association from people we term civilized. 
They came aboard our steamer in great numbers, but 
would not touch our food. A more gentle, loving, 
peaceable race of people, I have never met. Their 
clothing consisted of a band of leaves around their 
loins. 1 often watched the young girls walking along 
the hillside, with their arms around each other's waists. 
Many other like indications were noticeable, showing 
that their natural instincts were affectionate and good ; 
and, strange to say, the women w T ere virtuous, the pen- 
alty for unchastity being death. Think of it ! 

They used a kind of wine, which I think was called 
guava. Their mode of manufacturing guava might 
not be quite as civilized a process as our modes of 
manufacturing gin or beer — and was as follows : 
Imagine a picturesque hut, made of clay, grass, 
branches and leaves, in the centre of -which is placed a 
large cocoanut bowl with a half dozen dusky maidens 
from twelve to eighteen years of age sitting around it 
all busily chewing a root — 'looking much as our girls 
do when chewing gum — and expectorating in the bowl. 
When a sufficient amount is thus produced, it is ready 
for use. It is not exactly an opiate, nor a liquor, but 
a cross between the two. It produces sleep, is con- 
sidered by them a sacred drink, and is used at their 
religious ceremonies. As I wish some excuse for ac- 
knowledging that I tasted the beverage, I will say the 
interpreter told me that they would be much offended 
if I refused it ; and, as it is my custom to refuse noth- 
ing new (or old) that is offered me to drink, I accented 
on this occasion. 



I 2 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

An Englishman, who was a Feejee planter, was one 
of the passengers on our steamer. He had lived in the 
Feejee Islands a number of years, knew the different 
tribes, their history, peculiarities, etc. I expressed my 
surprise to find this Feejee tribe, which I had had the 
privilege of mingling with, and studying its character, 
such a pleasing, kind and moral people, apparently 
averaging in intelligence with people in general. He 
told me that the stories about cannibalism were untrue. 
They were all exaggerations. I said to him there must 
be some fire where there is so much smoke. He said 
yes, that was true, and that through years of study and 
investigation, and living among these unknown tribes, 
he had found, he thought, the truth from whence came 
the untruth. He explained it in this way: The 
savages have wars, and it was not unusual during a 
prolonged fight, when no provisions were at hand, no 
fruit or fish, occasionally, under pressure of intense 
hunger, the body of a dead enemy was cooked and 
eaten. As during, the siege at Paris, the French ate 
rats, cats and dogs, and under similar trying circum- 
stances many white men have also devoured human 
flesh. After investigating this subject of cannibalism, 
looking into it as I have had the opportunity in the 
Feejee Islands, Africa, and many other countries, I 
have come to the conclusion that it is mostly mythical. 

One of the peculiarities about the Feejee Islands was 
the absence of animal life. It may be well known to 
some people, but it was a great surprise to me that 
not an animal of any description had ever been seen 
on the islands. Is it natural then that such a people 
would crave animal food, a people who had never 
tasted it? They live on fruit and fish. They wrap the 
fish in leaves, bury it in the earth, build a fire over it, 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 23 

and when it is cooked and the leaves removed it looks 
as tempting as a fish cooked on Manhattan Island. 

Nothing is more vividly impressed upon my mind 
than the picture of that Feejee village ; and, although I 
have visited the principal cities of the world, the little 
Feejee village, with its simple life and peculiarities, is 
ever bringing pleasure to my thoughts. It was as though 
taken back almost to the beginning of the world, and 
it was wonderful to watch their primitive ways, and to 
see how they procure such a variety of articles that 
resembled those used in European countries. 

The first Feejee young "gentleman" whom I saw 
sat in the doorway of a picturesque hut, smoking 
w T hat looked like a cigarette. He smoked as grace- 
fully as a Spaniard. I found upon inquiry that he was 
not smoking tobacco, but a leaf which resembled it 
somewhat, the name of which I have forgotten. They 
roll this wild cigarette dexterously. 

The top of the first hut I entered was covered with 
bananas, which were hung there to ripen. A young 
mother was lying on the matted floor. She was 
rocking the cradle of her little twenty-four-hour old 
Feejee son. The cradle was made from a single leaf, 
a heavy vein running through the centre, which en- 
abled it to be rocked with ease. It looked very much 
like the old-fashioned low cradle of our childhood. 
The leaf was so shaped by the Creator as to hold the 
native babes of the woods — nature's cradle. 

Coral necklaces there, as here, adorned the necks of 
the females. If they wanted a string, either to carry 
fish or to use for any other purpose, it seemed as natural 
for them to go to a little sapling, rip off the bark and 
give it a twist, as for us to procure it from a ball of 
twine. Their cooking utensils and articles used about 



1 24 THE SALEM SEER. 

the huts were interesting, and it was a study to observe 
how all these different articles corresponded to the 
same articles used in what we term the civilized, or 
moneyed, nations. 

They seemed to be very fond of music. One song 
I well remember. From what they told me I judge 
it was a national song which they had all adopt- 
ed, and would correspond, I suppose, to our "Star 
Spangled Banner," or the " Marseillaise " of the French. 
The little village seemed a miniature world, showing 
that whatever vibrated in the great communities of the 
earth was also there, and that after all there is not a 
great difference between that little family living in the 
far away Feejee Islands and the families who live in 
London or Berlin. 

My recollection of the people of that Feejee village 
is most restful and pleasing. They were nature's happy 
family. They seemed to have no weariness. There 
was not a sick person in the village — old age being the 
only cause of death. Peace and good will prevailed ; 
and, as the twilight fell upon them, it seemed like a 
benediction from God. 

I was impressed with a leading editorial in one of 
our New York journals, some days since, which read 
as follows. 

After years of toil and the sacrifice of many lives Central Africa is 
still completely at the mercy of the Arab slave-traders and the savage 
native chiefs. 

It is military force which subdues barbarism ; it is commerce which 
arms force for that work. The schoolmaster and the missionary can 
accomplish nothing until the soldier, hired by trade, has prepared the 
way for them. 

Civilized nations have their trading stations already established along 
the African coasts. Instigated by greed they will push their frontiers 
steadily further into the country, in a race with each other for the 
possession of the fairest provinces. In the interest of trade they will 



THE SALEM SEER. 



125 



prick back savagery with the bayonet, binding their conquests with 
lines of roadway. That's the way in which this continent was secured 
for civilization. The pall of barbarism cannot be lifted. It must be 
rolled back by advancing trade. If savagery submits it shares the 
benefits of the conquest. If it refuses to submit it is crushed by the 
strong hand. It has been so in all ages and countries. It will be so 
in all ages and countries. It will be so in Africa. 

"The Arab slave traders " — are the Arabs as a race 
such a terrible set of men as Europeans paint them ? Has 
not the Arab race passed as high an examination for 
bravery, intellect and religion as other races ? One 
Arab at least will live eternally — Mahomet. How about 
the slaves whom we have freed ? Would not the money 
have been better spent in educating them — the Africans of 
our country — than in trying to educate and convert the 
Africans of Africa? Advocating "military force" to 
"subdue" barbarism — we hear so much about barbar- 
ism, the heathen, the savages, the uncivilized. I have 
travelled through the Oriental countries, and have tried 
to study the different races of mankind, and I consider 
humanity as one family. I believe there is as much 
civilization in Egypt, China, Japan, and other countries, 
as there is in Europe and America. It is a question 
whether the foreign soldiers which are sent to Africa are 
sent in the interest of morality and religion. It looks as 
though they went more for gain — for ivory and for gold. 

Does it not show a good deal of conceit among 
Europeans and Americans, to be constantly talking and 
writing of their civilization, religion and morality. 
Picking up one of our prominent newspapers, I find the 
first article, with the following headlines : 

"They call these nobles! — eighty aristocratic Eng- 
lishmen charged with foul crimes. — Lord Arthur Som- 
erset and Lord Ronald Gower among the accused. — They 
are saved from arrest by the British Home Office and 



I 26 THE SALEM SEER. 

allowed to flee to the Continent — Henry Labouchere 
exposes them and calls for their immediate punishment 
— A terrible scandal ! " 

In another column I read, for some wrong or fancied 
wrong a woman shot five bullets into the body of a 
citizen of high standing. In other columns I see exposed 
the different frauds in the city government. In fact the 
whole paper is a record of crime and depravity. ' ' Phy- 
sician heal thyself." 

The Orientals do not build their houses so high as we 
do, their mode of life is different from ours, but I think 
if we could speak the language of these "savage 
chiefs," and commune with them, we would find as 
kind hearts, as big souls, as much character and integ- 
rity, as among their lighter-skinned brethren. Far-away 
countries have been vilified — ridiculous and exaggerated 
stories are told of them. I hope some step may be taken 
soon for a World Congress, so that the West may learn 
of the East, and the East of the West ; and if that time 
should come, the amount of Eastern wisdom that 
would be showered down for the benefit of the West, in 
my estimation, would be surprising ! The human family 
ought to mingle, and know each other better. Is it not 
time that the sword was put by, and in its stead arbitra- 
tion, goodness of soul and intelligence rule the world? 
Are not the real barbarians the soldiers and the people 
who sustain them ? The European nations certainly do 
not receive their thirst for war and bloodshed from Christ's 
teachings. If we cannot carry what we consider our 
advantages, and our civilization, into the heart of Africa 
save by the sword, by the ravages of war and rum, 
then I should say leave Africa to her own people, for I 
believe the Creator will take care of His children, find- 
ing better ways to educate them — whether they be 
black or white. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



I2 7 



CHAPTER XIII. 

We left our stranded steamer, the MacGregor, on 
the coral-reef, at Kandavu, and were taken on board 
the steamer Tartar. We were compelled to go via 
Auckland, New Zealand, where we remained one day. 
Mr. Foster purchased a book there containing a won- 
derful collection of pressed ferns. New Zealand is noted 
for its great variety of ferns. 

We arrived in Melbourne, via Sydney, March 13, 
1874. It seemed to us the ''jumping off place" — the 
antipodes. We were ten thousand miles from home, 
strangers in a strange land, not knowing an individual, 
and without a letter of introduction ! I thought, "Can 
Foster give seances to these strangers which will be as 
satisfactory as to the people at home ? Will their 
spirit friends come as freely and answer as correctly ? 
Will these startling phenomena come and astonish peo- 
ple here as in other places ? " 

We found pleasant apartments at the Old White Hart 
Hotel, and as we had no machinery to arrange, we 
were ready for business at once; but how to procure 
it, coming as we did unheralded ? We felt sure that to 
interest the press was the first step to be taken, so I 
started at once for the newspaper offices. The news- 
papers had impressed us as fine specimens of journal- 
ism ; the editorials showing marked ability. Any city 
might be proud of a paper like the Australasian. I 
consulted with Mr. Neal, who was accredited as being 
the best writer on that paper, and found him as cold 



128 THE SALEM SEER. 

as an iceberg, a deep thinker and a profound student, 
but not especially interested in Spiritualism. He had 
not heard of Mr. Foster, but after showing him some 
newspaper notices, and discussing the question very 
thoroughly, he finally consented to attend a seance. 
From this conversation I was sure he did not think the 
readers of the Australasian would be very much inter- 
ested in articles on the subject of Spiritualism. I went 
from there to the Melbourne Age and several other 
newspaper offices, with about the same experience 
and results. I arranged for a seance at two o'clock on 
the third day after our arrival, to be given to represent- 
atives of the leading papers of Melbourne. As the time 
approached for the gentlemen to arrive, I felt somewhat 
nervous, for they were unusually skeptical, and I felt 
assured by their manner that they would make no ex- 
cuse for failure ; and if Mr. Foster did not strike them 
as with a thunderbolt, we should be crushed at the 
start. Never did Mr. Foster give a sitting to a more 
unsympathetic company. If there had been a dyna- 
mite explosion in the rooms, I do not think they would 
have given an extra wink. Foster worked hard, and 
after a seance of several hours the men left, leaving us 
chilled with their cold politeness. We discussed the 
seance, and were in doubt whether it would prove a 
failure or a success. Some exceptionally fine tests 
were given, but they seemed to make so little impres- 
sion that we could not but feel disappointed. We 
must patiently wait for the morning papers. We were 
pleased with the result. The articles which appeared 
the next morning were seriously and well written, and 
we were gratified that they did not consider it necessary 
to make fun of that which they could not explain. 
The following article by Mr. Syme, editor of the 



THE SALEM SEER. 



I2 9 



Melbourne Daily Age, is a fair sample of the many 
able articles which appeared in the Melbourne press : 

AN HOUR WITH A MEDIUM. 

Ask not to what doctors I apply, 
Sworn to no master, of no sect am I ; 
As drives the storm, at any door I knock, 
And house with Montague now, or now with 
Locke. 

I have always accustomed myself to look upon these four lines of 
Pope as giving a tolerably fair representation of my general condition 
of mind when brought into contact with any of the metaphysical contro- 
versies of the day. If it is inconsistent with the idea of stability and stead- 
fastness, it is at any rate suggestive of perfect freedom from preposses- 
sion, partiality, prejudice, or bias. And to this extent I think that I 
may plead it as ajustification for the task of inquiring into the pretensions 
of Spiritualism. I had never taken part at a seance, and had never even 
had the patience to wait upon a table till it rapped. Gallio careth for none 
of these things, is the feeling that instinctively takes hold of me at the 
approach of subjects that I feel to be hopelessly inaccessible to the 
ordinary processes of reason and intelligence. But at the invitation of 
my friend, whom I shall call Scrutator for the rest of this narrative, 
and who had arranged for a private interview or exhibition by the 
kindness of Mr. Foster, I roused myself from my natural incuriosity, 
and went to that gentleman's residence on Saturday evening, where I 
witnessed the experiments that I now propose to recount, as nearly 
as possible as they happened. A well-known clergyman was to have 
accompanied us, but something or other prevented him from keeping 
his appointment. When we arrived at Mr. Foster's door, I and 
Scrutator, the first thing that struck us was the announcement of his 
name on the brass-plate. — " Mr. Foster, Medium." Here we were at 
once, in the presence of the first novelty — mediumship reduced, or 
elevated, to a profession. " Literally, a dealer in spirits," I said, "a 
telegraphist, who will send a message to your grandmother in Hades 
for a less sum than you would have to pay to communicate with your 
friend in London or Paris." 

Are these commodities 
To be imported from the skies. 
And vended here among; the rabble 
For staple goods and warrantable ? 

9 



130 



THE SALEM SEER, 



Scrutator made no reply, being one of Carlyle's monosyllabic ,men, 
but I suspect he was beginning to realize Gulliver's feelings on his 
first introduction to the isle of Glubbdubdrib, where his Highness the 
Governor ordered him to call up whatever persons he chose to name 
among all the dead from the beginning of the world, and command 
them to answer any questions he should think fit to ask. His silence 
was not broken till we were ushered into the sitting-room by Mr. 
Foster's agent, who told us that that gentleman was somewhere on the 
premises, and would shortly attend upon us. We had time to make 
a few observations before he entered. The room was a small one, 
and so was the parlor separated from it by the passage, in which the 
operations took place. Both were lighted up by gasaliers from the 
centre of the ceiling, and the doors of both were open. The table 
was strewed with books more or less relating to Spiritualism, and I had 
just begun to look into a short biographic notice of Mr. Foster when 
that gentleman appeared at the door, with a heavily loaded pipe at 
his lips. Scrutator had made his acquaintance before. I had not, and 
when I was introduced as the friend of Scrutator, no name was men- 
tioned. Mr. Foster received us apparently without any of the showman 
in his manner, and resuming his smoke entered freely into conversation. 
He was disappointed with Melbourne from a medium point of view, 
and was surprised at the comparative lack of interest shown in spiritu- 
alistic inquiries. " In San Francisco there were a hundred professional 
mediums at least, and in New York there might be a thousand. 
Throughout the States the organization is as complete as that of any 
other established form of faith." A question of faith Mr. Foster said 
he did not regard it. ''I am simply endowed with a peculiar power. 
You may call it clairvoyance, or clair-audience, or anything you 
please. I know this, but I know nothing more. I do not desire to 
proselytize, or to propagate a creed, for I have not formulated my 
consciousness into a creed for myself. " " What is the result of the 
power as far as your consciousness is concerned ? What is it that you 
do, or think you do ? " "I hold direct personal communication with 
the. spirits of the dead. I don't say with all spirits, but with those 
with whom I am en rapport. I literally and actually know what 
they say to me," he added, in reply to a gesture of incredulity from 
Scrutator. " That is to say, you believe you do?" I interrupted. 
" But do you know what the act of belief in the popular sense pre- 
figures. Montaigne's classification represents the ordinary believer ' ' 
— "I am a reader of Montaigne," he interjected. "'Most people 
believe that they believe, not knowing what it is to believe,' " I con- 



THE SALEM SEER. 131 

tinued. " That is Montaigne's description, you know. Dr. Cairns, 
for instance, believes that he believes in the miraculous conver- 
sion of water into wine. Bishop Goold, just above him, believes 
that he believes in the transformation of the sacramental wine into 
blood ; but you wouldn't class the mental operation in their case with 
mine," I said. "For instance, when I say that I believe that table is 
there before me." "My beliet is your belief," he replied. "I am 
intellectually convinced in what I believe, because I hear and see the 
objects I believe in, just as you see that table." I referred to the 
alleged manifestations which took place a week or two ago at Sand- 
hurst. A lock of hair, among other things, said to be brought out of 
a grave, and placed upon the operating table. "Do you believe 
that ? " " I do not believe it in the same sense that I believe in what 
I experience myself. I should require to see the lock of hair coming 
through the window, or down that chimney yonder, and placed upon 
the table, before I could believe it. But observe (he went on), I don't 
say it didn't happen or couldn't happen. I don't know what may 
happen to-morrow, what new discovery might be made in physics in 
the next hour. Morse couldn't get anybody to believe that he could, 
by means of the little instrument he had made, send a message from 
New York to Washington in a few minutes. I can't explain what 
the power is, but I know by proofs that my reason assents to that I 
possess it, or that it possesses me, and therefore I don't think it is 
right or philosophical to doubt a thing because I can't tell what it is." 
I thought of the answer that Hudibras got from the necromancer 
Sidrophel — 

Quoth Sidrophel, it is no part 

Of prudence to cry down an art, 

And what it may perform deny, 

Because you understand not why. 

The conversation was carried on for a little time longer, during 
which we discussed the various theories that had been hazarded in 
explanation of the phenomena of Spiritualism, second-sight, mesmer- 
ism, unconscious cerebration, and so on. Mr. Foster was of course 
familiar with them all, but he disclaimed anything more than a mere 
theoretical knowledge of them. Mesmerism he considered to be quite 
inadequate to account for the things done, such as levitation of heavy 
bodies; and unconscious cerebration he could not understand, for 
' : how is it possible that I could think your thoughts when your 
thoughts do not exist as thoughts to yourself ? A thought is incon- 
ceivable apart from consciousness. A thought is the result of vibra- 



132 



THE SALEM SEEK. 



tion or motion in the cells of your brain ; and you say that that vibra- 
tion has been communicated to mine, and so I think or perceive what 
you are thinking or perceiving. But how can that be said to happen 
before the vibration in your brain takes place ? Is thinking an indo- 
lent process as well as an active one, an unconscious process as well as 
a conscious one?" "You look upon Spiritualism as you look 
upon mesmerism or phrenology, I suppose, as the opening of a 
new chapter in the study of the human mind, in psychology in 
fact a first step, not a final discovery; a means, not an end." 
"Precisely," he replied, "as disclosing the germs of a connec 
tion between mind in its mortal and mind in its immortal stage or 
condition." It is unnecessary to recapitulate the conversation any 
further. It is very clear that Mr. Foster's confidence in his own 
powers was not a mere passive belief, but a strong, rational, I may al- 
most say rationalistic, conviction. He had reasoned himself into it, 
from the ample evidence that had been supplied to his senses; and I 
could not help recalling Lord Amberley's remark, in the current num- 
ber of the Fortnightly Review, that at any rate the spiritualist of Mr. 
Foster's type has stronger ground for his creed, if it can be called one, 
than most other creedalists have for theirs. But in spite of the prep- 
aration which I had undergone, I confess that I rose on Mr. Foster's 
hint to go into the parlor opposite, where the performances were 
about to take place, with my native disposition to resist any impres- 
sions from the supernatural completely unco wed. I had very much 
the feeling prefigured in Horace's verse — 

Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi, 

and when I took my seat at the large oval table, it was in anything but a 
mood to be imposed upon. Scrutator sat nearly opposite to me, and 
at the head, with his back to the chimney-piece (which was securely 
boarded up), sat the medium. He took his seat readily, and at once 
asked us if we had any test questions we would like to put. 

Scrutator had prepared himself with a few, for he probably knew the 
trade of the necromancer, and the tricks of his trade, how 

His business is to pump and wheedle, 
And men with their own keys unriddle 
And make them to themselves give answers. 

1 can most unreservedly state, however, that there was no attempt what- 
ever on the part of Mr. Foster to try these stale dodges upon either of his 
visitors on the present occasion. There was a card with the alphabet 
printed on it before Scrutator, and a black lead-pencil and a piece of blank 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 33 

writing paper were also in reach of us both. Distinct raps, or I should 
say taps, were heard on the carpeted floor in the corner about five feet 
off almost as soon as Mr. Foster had taken his seat. "Take the 
paper," he said to each of us, " and write any names you like upon it, 
names of persons you knew, dead or alive, or of fictitious characters, 
any you please. Tear them apart, and wrap them tightly up, and 
fling them before you." We did as directed. "Now point with the 
pencil to each, as you hear the raps, and if the spirit of the person 
whose name is touched is present, the raps given will indicate it." 
Again we obeyed. ' ' Now, open the papers yourselves, look at the names, 
and I will ask the spirits to spell them, letter by letter, on the card. ' ' Scru- 
tator was first. As the word was spelled out, I wrote it down as well 
as himself. " Is that the name on your card?" asked the medium. 
*' It is," said Scrutator. " And on yours, sir ? " " It is," I answered. 
"Mr. S.," immediately began the medium, his face suddenly suffus- 
ing with blood, but without the slightest apparent conscious effort, 
"your brother and your father are here" — and here the curious 
thing was, that the medium repeated names which had not even been 
written as yet. He seemed to be propelled onward by some inner 
force, which actually made him anticipate what we were going to write, 
and give the answers before we put the questions on paper. Thus, 
when Scrutator asked his relative to tell him what profession he had 
been in the flesh, Mr. Foster directed him to write down a list of trades 
and professions, which he did, such as miner, barrister, surgeon, den- 
tist, and so forth. "He is telling me," ejaculated Mr. Foster, "be- 
fore he tells you," and he wrote down something on a piece of paper 
before him, before Scrutator had finished the list. The titles were then 
torn off and screwed up as before, and the spirit began to rap them 
out by the alphabet — "Surgeon." "That's right," nodded Scruta- 
tor. "See here," said the medium, handing up a piece of paper on 
which he had written two minutes before at least, and sure enough 
the word "surgeon" was on it. "Give me a proof of your existence," 
wrote Scrutator, keeping the question as before in his own hand. The 
answer was quite coherent, and wound up — " This should be sufficient 
proof of my existence," — the very words that were on the paper. The 
raps meantime removed at our request to different parts of the room, 
close to our hands on one occasion. So far it was still possible at any 
rate to explain the phenomena by unconscious cerebration. Scrutator's 
brain might be perused like a map by the medium, who might have 
repeated what he saw or felt there. Another test was now adopted 
accordingly. Scrutator had in his pocket a book carefully wrapped 



134 



THE SALEM SEER. 



up, which had been placed there by a friend before he left home, and 
the title and subject of which had been strictly concealed from him. He 
did not know what it was about. Now if Mr. Foster could tell this, 
it is clear that he could not get the information from Scrutator. ''What 
book have I in my pocket," the latter asked. No reply. " What is 
the subject," asked Mr. Foster, " can you tell?" And he immedi- 
ately took a pencil and wrote down " Politics." Still, the name of the 
author was not given, nor the title of the book. " They cannot see it," 
said Mr. Foster. Accordingly it was taken out of Scrutator's pocket 
with some disappointment. It turned out to be a volume entitled 
Political Portraits, republished from the London Daily News, without 
any author's name. "Let me place my hand on it," said Mr. Foster, 
reaching across the table, "and I will ask the spirit to mention some 
word in it, since that is Scrutator's wish." In a moment there came 
an order, rapped out as follows — " Turn to page 120, top of the page 
— ' Masters say.' " W T e took up the book, a new one, turned to the 
page indicated, cut it open, and there were the Very words standing 
first, " Masters say." 

Now, granting that Mr. Foster works usually by unconscious cere- 
bration, or second sight, that is no explanation of the mystery in the 
present case. For the words were dictated to me, and I wrote them 
down without Mr. Foster's interference in any way, by word or deed. 
And, besides this, Scrutator himself did not know them, and had never 
read the book. 

I do not care about relating in detail what happened in my own case. 
The spirit with whom I was put in communication was that of a lady 
who lived a life of co-existence with me on earth, such as Shelley pre- 
figured in his Epipsychidion, and the two questions which I indited to 
her, unseen by Mr. Foster, were reproduced word for word in her 
answer. Mr. Foster himself was much excited in delivering the answer, 
which he said he ' ' heard ' ' being dictated to him, and involuntarily 
clasped my hand. " She suffered," he said, " here, here," pointing 
to both his lungs; " but she died bravely and peacefully, like a flower 
closing itself amid its own perfumes." Curiously enough, the last 
words of the lady, who died of consumption, were, "I smell roses," 
and ceased instantaneously. Mr. Foster tbok a piece of paper and a 
pencil in the palm of his hand, thrust it quickly under the table, and 
withdrew it again, when her name was found to be written upon it ; 
but I did not place much stress upon this. 

He brought the seance to a close by placing his hand flat on the table 
before me, and informing Scrutator that his brother would write the 



THE SALEM SEER. 



)35 



initials of his name upon it. Soon some red lines appeared upon the 
back of it, Mr. Foster flinching from what he called the electric spark, 
and the outline of the first letter could be traced clearly enough on the 
skin, the second being more indistinct. Both faded slowly away; and 
we rose to go, not having time to discuss stigmata. 

'' And what did you think of it?" inquires the reader, forgetting 
that it would be just as reasonable to ask me what I think of any of the 
phenomena of vegetation, of the growth of the crystal, or the cabbage, 
or my own body, with its various senses of hearing, seeing, tasting. 
That Mr. Foster should hear what he alleges to be spirits whispering 
is not more wonderful than that he should hear me address him, or 
that I should hear him. Experience has familiarized me with the one 
phenomena and not the other. That is all the difference. Of course it 
is a great difference so far as my faculties of belief are concerned, but 
I have no right to decide the possible limits of another man's expe- 
rience, and consequently of another man's belief, by my own. It may 
be that Mr. Foster does obtain his information from a source not with- 
in the reach of other mortals, without the special organic conditions 
for obtaining it. I have not the requisite organization, as far as I 
know, and therefore I do not believe in spirit communications, as Mr. 
Foster apparently does. But because I do not believe it does not fol- 
low that I may not believe that Mr. Foster may entertain the sincerest 
and strongest convictions to that effect. I certainly could not detect 
the slightest misgivings in his attitude towards the question, and I am 
sure that he did not use any what are vulgarly known as tricks to ob- 
tain the results that he presented me with. Those results may be 
really what they are represented to be, or it may be only that Mr. 
Foster thinks them to be real. It is not much help to the general ob- 
server, I grant, but perhaps I am stating the preponderating impression 
left on my mind by them, when I say that my conclusion is that of 
Lord Amberley that "there is something in it," or as Pope more 
neatly puts it, that, " It is not either wholly false, or wholly true." 



36 THE SALEM SEEN, 



CHAPTER XIV. 

We quote the following- extracts from the Australasian 
which, though honestly written, were not favorable to 
Spiritualism. 

Undoubtedly, it may be said that Mr. Foster may be genuinely a be- 
liever in what he says, and that he really holds that the answers are 
given to him by spirits. In reply to this, I can only say that there is 
absolutely nothing in these phenomena that I witnessed that is in the 
smallest degree suggestive of spirit causation. I do not only say that 
they do not prove the theory, I say they do not give it the slightest 
color. There is not a single fact in itself that betrays the working of 
any outside influence. There is not a single difficulty that is removed 
by the adoption of so purely hypothetical a cause. To see how en- 
tirely imaginary it is, just observe the assumptions that it involves. We 
do not know that there are spirits. If there are, we know nothing of 
their nature, their powers, their modes of working. We do not know 
that they could produce such phenomena as these. If the ordinary de- 
finition of a spirit be taken as a starting point, we know that they 
could not. But here, to explain a difficulty, there is first the assump- 
tion that we are surrounded by spirits; next that these can be com- 
manded, but only by certain people and in a certain way ; next that 
they are conscious of our thoughts; next that they can read, can dis- 
tinguish one piece of paper from another, and can and do convey all 
this knowledge to the mind of the medium. How do they read, how 
do they see without eyes, speak without voice, hear without senses, 
understand without the physical organ of thought? There is no 
answer to these and to a hundred other questions, and yet numbers of 
people assume that these "medium" phenomena are readily and 
simply explained by the theory of spirit influence. To so many minds 
a difficulty is "explained" when it is pushed one step further off, 
although by doing so it is multiplied a thousandfold. Considering, there- 
fore, the utterly imaginary nature of this hypothesis, and the fact that 
it is absolutely destitute of a priori rational probability, or a posteriori 



THE SA L EM SEER. 1 3 7 

support, I repeat that the answer of the medium, in holding the " spirits " 
accountable for his highly questionable form of procedure, is either 
nonsensical superstition or conscious evasion. Either explanation 
abundantly justifies the refusal of science to regard these phenomena as 
being, in their present shape, at all entitled to demand recognition or 
experimental investigation. 

But still, with all this, I adhere to my belief that some of these mani- 
festations were perfectly genuine and unaccountable, save upon very 
dark explanations. For my own part, I am quite content to leave 
them unaccounted for. In a world where there is so much mystery, 
so much unknown, so much unsolved and unsolvable, there is nothing 
that should disturb one's mental equilibrium if these strange phe- 
nomena remain unsolved too. If ever their explanation is reached, I 
believe it will be found in the pathology rather than in the physiology 
of the mind. When all is said, these matters are curious rather as be- 
ing abnormal than as being at all suggestive of any fruitful results. 
Certain morbid conditions, joined with a complete stagnation of all 
intellectual activity, appear in these " mediums " to have produced an 
extreme sensibility to impressions, akin to the extraordinary quickness 
of sensations sometimes occasioned by bodily disease. But these con- 
ditions and the strange faculty they develop have never involved any- 
thing of the slightest benefit to anybody, save the easy life and affluence 
they often secure to the medium. They are hardly ever found un- 
tainted by trickery or unassociated with conscious or unconscious deceit. 
They have been used as the foundation of one of the grossest forms of 
superstition that the world ever knew — of a religion that has sprung 
from the very gutters of modern life. Except, perhaps, to scientific 
students of mental pathology there is nothing in this business to en- 
courage the hope of any result being reached by investigation that 
would be at all worth reaching. And even such students have a right 
to say to those who demand an inquiry, ' ' First get rid of the elements 
of trickery and superstition, of the professional charlatanry by which 
your phenomena are now vitiated and rendered suspicious, and then 
you may be able to present a case as much deserving examination as 
many other cases of mental and physical aberration and abnormal de- 
velopment that are yet very imperfectly explored. This might be the 
answer of scientific men, but to men of the world, who judge things 
merely on the principle of utility, a much shorter answer will serve. 
They will hold it sufficient that this matter has done, and is doing, a 
great deal of mischief, and has never done, and is not likely to do, the 
smallest good — that it is dangerous and doubtful, and void of all use 



I3 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

to humanity, to warrant them in refusing to trifle with it as an amuse- 
ment, or to give it any consideration as a thing of serious concern. 

What others had to say : 



MR. FOSTER, THE MEDIUM. 

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "AGE." 

Sir, — I see by the public prints that somebody has discovered that 
the American medium, Mr. Foster, if not the devil himself, is never- 
theless 

Some pettifogging fiend, 
Some under-doorkeeper s fiend's fiend, 
That undertakes to understand, 
And juggles at the second hand, 

and that some of the professors of the art have smoked him, and are 
going to spoil his game, and tell us all about it. Seriously, if the 
jugglery is to be worth the paper it is printed upon, it must account 
for the following group of facts among others which occurred at his 
seances: 

(i) A gentleman received from the medium's lips the description of 
a little girl whom he said he saw in the room — fair hair, blue eyes, and 
so on. " Have you any relative answering to the image? " asked the 
medium. His sitter collected his thoughts and recalled the picture of 
a child he had lost several years previously, whose features he at once 
recognized in Mr. Foster's delineation. 

(2) Another male sitter received by request the facsimile of his 
dead brother's signature. It was not correct, he said. On compar- 
ing it with the original when he went home, however, he found it to 
correspond in every particular. 

(3) Two gentlemen and two ladies were at the table ; they were 
strangers to each other. " Has any one in the room lost a relative 
who was lame or deformed ? " After a moment's pause, "I have," 
said one of the ladies, " and I shall be glad, too, if you can tell me the 
particulars of his death. " " He says he was killed from falling off his 
horse." " Quite right," said the lady, with some agitation. " His body 
was found in the bush, and his horse returned home without him, and 
curiously enough he was deformed from a blow on the spine in early 
life." 

Now, these are only three samples of a series of communications 
which I either heard directly or indirectly. On not one of the occa- 



THE SALEM SEER. 



*39 



sions referred to were they put down on paper at all, and the questions 
which emanated from the medium, and which led up to the communi- 
cations, were spontaneous, in the first and last instance. Clearly then, 
any attempt to explain them by the hypothesis of transparent paper or 
any of the common machinery of the juggler, is perfectly futile, and 
the revelations which we are told to expect will not repay the trouble 
of reading. 

I see that the Argus puts forward the old familiar suggestion of 
brain-reading or mental transfer ; or, as we know it by another name, 
unconscious cerebration. But if this theory satisfactorily accounts for 
the phenomena of Fosterism, it would have exploded long ago. There 
is just this objection to it. It explains nothing. On the contrary, it 
needs explanation itself. There is no evidence of the medium going 
out of his mind on receiving impressions from another person. He 
talks, and laughs, and smokes, and exhibits not a single abnorma- 
symptom, such as we have a right to expect under the extraordinary 
condition of functional disorder through which his brain is supposed 
to be passing. Besides this, if it is all done by brain-reading, how is 
it that failures occur so often — mistakes in trifling details, which are 
not unfrequently immediately corrected. If Mr. Foster could read the 
thoughts that are passing through my brain, as the external eye can 
read the letters in a book before it, it would be just as easy for him to 
read them correctly as not. But again : How is it that he sometimes 
suggests thoughts to me, rather than take them from, me, as where he 
relates a circumstance or an appearance of which I was not thinking. 
There is a metaphysical figment, called latent thought; but if Mr. 
Foster's brain is for the time being a mere reproduction of the state of 
my own, the thought would be latent in his as well as mine. How- 
ever, it is not my intention to be drawn into a controversy, in which I 
take but a very apathetic interest in its present stage. What discov- 
eries in mental science it foreshadows it is difficult to even conjecture. 
I should be as willing to accept the promised revelations of trickery as 
anybody ; but the worst of it is they have been made so often before, 
and the explanation is invariably found to cover but a very small part, 
and that part a very unimportant one, of the entire group of phenomena 
which the so-called spiritual medium has been ascertained to have the 
power of causing to be manifested, and of which the proofs are as 
strong and incontrovertible — not more so, but not less — as those of 
Holy Writ. 

Materialist. 



I 4 THE SALEM SEER. 

Sir, — As some of my brethren have been making Mr. Foster (the 
medium) the text for their sermons, I thought he must have excited 
sufficient interest in clerical circles to justify my taking advantage of 
an unexpected invitation from a friend to pay him a visit yesterday. 
I found him in the midst of his luggage, packed for the voyage, but at 
the solicitation of my friend he immediately asked us (three in number) 
to be seated. I certainly never saw a human conjurer armed with 
less preparation for his tricks. He was smoking with little or no 
intermission the whole time, and was twice interrupted by a call to 
luncheon. We were handed the usual slips of blank paper, which I 
can vouch for were not transparent, and we wrote a variety of names 
upon them in the usual way. The rapping meantime commenced, and 
Mr. Foster told us he had been dining out a day or two ago in the 
company of a Minister and ex-Minister of the Crown, when the whole 
house took to rapping in the most extraordinary style. He says he 
cannot explain it; but I may here point out that the raps are utterly 
fatal to the imconscious cerebration theory. For they are external to 
the medium, at a distance of several feet from him, and they it is which 
indicate the answers to the questions on the papers more frequently 
than not, showing that, if the medium is really the speaking agent, he 
must also be the rapping agent. He must rap by unconscious cere- 
bration, as well as speak by it. But to my experiment, or rather to 
one of them. I had written the name of a deceased friend, whose 
death-bed I had attended. Mr. Foster, almost in the midst of giving 
replies to the questions put by my companions at the table, turned his 
attention to me, wrote down the name of my friend correctly; and in 
answer to the question, What he died of? suddenly interrupted, "Stay, 
this spirit will enter and possess me," and instantaneously his whole 
body was seized with quivering convulsions, the eyes were introverted, 
the face 'swelled, and the mouth and hands were spasmodically agitated. 
Another change, and there sat before me the counterpart of the figure 
of my departed friend, stricken down with complete paralysis, just as 
he was on his death-bed. The transformation was so life-like, if I 
may use the expression, that I fancied I could detect the very features 
and physiognomical changes that passed across the visage of my dying 
friend. The kind of paralysis was exactly represented, with the 
palsied hand extended to me to shake, as in the case of the original. 
Mr. Foster recovered himself when I touched it, and he said in reply 
to one of my companions that he had completely lost his own identity 
during the fit, and felt like waves of water flowing all over his body, 
from the crown downwards. I will not refer to the other experiments 



THE SALEM SEER. 



HI 



that were made in our presence, such as indicating the names of places 
where the persons whose names were written on the paper died, or the 
manner of their deaths; but I have no hesitation in putting on record 
my conviction that there was no jugglery, legerdemain, or conjuring, 
or any conceivable approach to it. Mr. Foster fails now and then to 
give the correct replies, but he generally corrects himself, and he is 
perfectly undisturbed by his failures. Indeed, his manner is all frank- 
ness and candor, and no one who has five minutes' interview with him 
can doubt but that he is possessed of some strange power denied to the 
majority of human organisms, and that he himself conscientiously 
believes that he holds communication with the spirit world. It is, in 
fact, his religion, and I am not surprised that he should resent the 
attempts that I am told have been made to induce him to mix himself 
up with wagers and bets. Knowingly, he says, he will never prosti- 
tute his power, whatever it may be. But am rather surprised that 
none of the scientific men who have visited him, the doctors especially, 
have favored the public with none of their theories of the phenomena. 

Clericus. 

I quote the closing lines of quite a lengthy article 
sent to the Argus'. 

I was, and am, convinced of the truth of spirit intercourse; it is as 
much a truth now as it was in the dawn of Christianity — when Paul 
was converted by spirit agency, or Peter released from prison by the 
same means. 

I am well aware of the odium attaching to the word " spiritualism," 
and the insulting and opprobrious epithets applied to those who think 
that the resources of nature, and nature's God, are still equal to the 
production of new editions of her former works — nevertheless, I feel 
it my duty, as a lover of truth, whether popular or unpopular, new or 
old, to testify to what I have seen, and give my reasons for feeling 
absolutely certain that life does not end with death, and that the at- 
tributes of the infinite spirit are not exhausted by the production of 
merely earthly organisms, but find a field of expansion worthy of the 
God of Nature in the eternal unfold men t and development of the 
creatures of His love. 

I am convinced this subject will yet attract a large share of the at- 
tention of thinkers, philosophers and philanthropists, and as a means 
towards that end I respectfully solicit the insertion of this letter. 

I enclose my card, and remain, sir, yours, etc., 

A Lady, 



1 4 2 THE SALEM SEER. 

I also quote the closing lines of another interesting 
letter : 

If all these well attested cases are myths, then there is no depend- 
ence to be placed on human testimony; then Napoleon and Nelson 
were myths, and the history of the Thirty Years War. a romance. It 
has been argued that most of the persons selected by spirits as mediums 
are generally not of a class either as to intelligence, appearance, or 
social position to command respect or belief, and that many of the 
spirits summoned by them would not in the flesh, by any means, have 
chosen these mediums as boon companions, or even have held com- 
munications with them. But having in memory a certain person of 
the Old Testament, 1 cannot but recollect — " That an ass spoke once," 
and if I remember right, the man who rode him, might have done 
worse than listen. I have only to add that the writing said to be done 
by the spirit of Henry Ford, I now enclose for your inspection, and am 
Yours obediently, T. B. S. Carwithen. 

Chiltern, Aus., 25 April, 1874. 

A portion of a letter written to the Federal Standard : 

I then wrote down on five different slips, five different names of 
deceased persons, that of my father in Greek characters, that of my 
brother Theodore, and that of a dear friend of mine, John Winder, in 
German characters, that of my grandmother, and last, that of Gen. 
Washington, in English letters. The first to make his appearance was 
my friend John Winder, the pellet on which his name was written in 
German being thrown to me by Mr. Foster with the remark, "That 
is Winder." I then asked Mr. Foster to tell me if my friend Winder 
had ever been near me since his death, and where his present abode 
was; to which I received the following communication dictated to 
Foster by the spirit of my friend : that he was much of his time with 
me, and watching over me, that he was glad to be able to talk with 
me today, that he would make himself known at my 0V11 house, if I 
would form a circle there, and that he was in the fifth sphere in the 
spirit world. This message itself did not surprise me very much, but 
the raps and knocks which occurred all over the room during its de- 
livery from the supposed spirit to Mr. Foster (raps similar to those 
heard in a telegraph office) did astonish me not a little, and it took me 
some time before I was satisfied that they were not produced by the 
feet of the medium. The next question I asked was to tell me how 
many years it was since my friend John Winder was dead. In an- 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 43 

swer to this question Mr. Foster requested me to observe the back of 
his hand, saying that the spirit of John Winder would write on it the 
correct number of years which elapsed since his death. Here Mr. 
Foster placed his left hand on the middle of the table, and in the 
course of about ten seconds the number 14 appeared in red characters 
quite distinctly on the back of Foster's hand. This phenomenon, called 
by Mr. Foster the stigmata test, astonished us all very much, and 
was twice repeated during the seance. The number of years, 14, was 
perfectly correct, a fact which I did not myself know at the time I put 
the question, but which I ascertained when I came back to Chiltern 
by a reference to my diary. I must make a pause here, and ask how 
Mr. Foster could give me this information, if he did not receive it from 
a source outside of the circle, as there was nobody present in the circle 
that knew the exact number of years. And then again the red stig- 
mata, how were they written on the back of Mr. Foster's hand ? I 
must confess the writing of the number 14 on the back of the medium's 
hand did not astonish me as much as the correct statement of the time 
which had elapsed since the death of my friend, John Winder ; for I 
am sure no superhuman agency wrote the message on his hand, but 
he knew it in his mind before it appeared in red letters, and he only 
projected the number mentally by a suffusion of blood (not dissimilar 
to the blush on the cheeks of a bashful girl) on the back of his hand. 
All readers of spiritualistic literature must be acquainted with the stig- 
mata (blood punctures) sometimes produced on the hands and feet of 
religious ecstatics in consequence of prolonged and intense contempla- 
tion of the passion of Christ, which contemplation at last terminates in 
the oozing out of blood in the corresponding spots of their extremities 
in the shape of nail wounds. In my opinion, therefore, the appear- 
ance of the stigmata in both cases is the effect of a powerful concen- 
tration of the mind upon a particular portion of the cutaneous integ- 
uments. 

As already mentioned, one of the 20 or 25 pellets of paper on the 
table before the medium contained the Christian and surname of my 
deceased father in Greek characters, which he singled out at once, 
professing, however, his inability to read it, but making it out after- 
wards with some difficulty by listening to a sound which he alleged to 
hear to his left which resembled, according to Mr. Foster's statement, 
the pronunciation of Martin Rohner, the real name of my father. I 
then desired Mr. Foster to state to me the trade, profession or occupa- 
tion of my father when living. In compliance with Mr. Foster's re- 
quest I wrote down on a piece of paper in a vertical column some six 



144 



THE SALEM SEER. 



or seven different trades and professions, butcher and surgeon being 
two of them. Foster's first reply was that my father had been a but- 
cher. On my telling him that he was wrong, Mr. Foster took a piece 
of paper (this paper is now in my possession), laid a lead pencil across 
it, and, placing it between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, 
held it under the table; and now occurred something which made a 
stronger impression on my mind than any occurrence in the whole 
course of my existence ever did. Being a strong believer in things 
above board, I at once objected to the proceeding, but on obtaining 
immediate permission to look under the table to see what was going on 
there, I saw some invisible power, force, or influence, call it what you 
please, draw the piece of paper gently and slowly from between his 
thumb and forefinger, leaving the pencil in his hand. Up to this time 
I could see nothing written upon the paper, which after leaving the 
hand of the medium fluttered about like a butterfly under the table for 
a space of five or six seconds, and eventually fell on the instep of my 
right foot at a distance of about four feet from Mr. Foster's seat. After 
I picked up the paper I found traced in the middle of it an illegible 
scrawl which I was unable to decipher. Handing it over to the 
medium he held it up against the light of the window, and read out 
" Surgeon." "Your father was a surgeon," he said, adding signifi- 
cantly that the spirits are sometimes fond of jeux de mots, which 
originally led him to interpret the profession of my father to have been 
that of a butcher instead of a surgeon. Although I have no objection 
to spirits being fond of plays on words, I must confess that, in this 
instance, I could not discover anything very elevated or spirited in the 
vulgar assimilation of the profession of a surgeon with that of a but- 
cher. Without attempting to offer any comment on this last and most 
wonderful exhibition of magic, spirkism, or spiritualism (call it what 
you like), I leave the subject in the hands of my sagacious readers, 
and beg to sign myself, Yours, etc., 

C. W. Rohner, M. D. 
Chiltern, n April, 1874. 

The following from the Melbourne Argus, I am 
quite sure was written by Mr. Charles Bright. He is a 
man who improved his opportunities and has lived 
up to his name. We found him strikingly bright ; a 
writer, a philosopher and a gentleman. Mr. Foster and 
myself were especially indebted to him and his wife for 
courtesies extended to us. 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 45 

MR. FOSTER, THE MEDIUM. 

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "ARGUS." 

SIR, — If the conversation of Collins Street may be taken as a crite- 
rion of success there can be little doubt of the fact that Mr. Foster has, 
by the exhibition of the power he possesses — be that power what it 
may — fairly astonished a large number of our leading citizens. Almost 
every one has a fresh tale of wonder to relate. As Mr. Foster finishes 
his seances on this side of the line to-morrow, and on Monday takes his 
departure for San Francisco, leaving crowds of eagerly offered guineas 
uncollected, perhaps you may not. object to open your columns to a 
slight discussion of his performances. Be he charlatan or veritable 
marvel, he can reap no profit now from any notice you may consent to 
accord him. 

In order that I may not gain the public ear unfairly, permit me to 
say that before Mr. Foster's arrival in Melbourne I had investigated so- 
called Spiritualism sufficiently to feel convinced that there was matter 
in it to repay investigation. I also knew Mr. Foster by repute. I had 
read of him in Robert Dale Owen's admirable book, The Debatable 
Land 1 in Epes Sargent's Planchette, an abridgment of which has been 
published by Mr. George Robertson; in the (London) Spiritual Maga- 
zine, and in various American papers. 

But the testimony of others — practical, common-sense business men, 
previously disposed to treat this subject with indifference, if not con- 
tempt—it is this I desire to call into court. I know of one gentleman, 
who I venture to assert would be selected by general consent as an um- 
pire in a difficult arbitration case more eagerly perhaps than any one 
else in the community, whose clearness of intellect and perspicacity are 
almost universally admitted— what was his experience with our curious 
visitor ? Previous to setting out on his novel search after the occult, 
wrote on slips of paper twelve different names, one on each slip. 
Enclosing these severally in twelve envelopes of superlative density, and 
sealing the same, he betook himself to the now famous cottage in Spring 
Street. He left it in less than half an hour, pondering on many things; 
for although he himself could not have told one envelope from another 
to save his life, the medium gave him responses to four out of the 
twelve, and in one case wrote the hidden name correctly on the out- 
side of the packet before the seal was broken. To another inquirer, 
also clear-headed and practical, and occupying a prominent position 
on the Melbourne press, the following incident, among many exlraor 

IO 



I 4 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

dinary ones, occurred. A departed relative purported to inform him 
that he would make manifest his initials on the hand of the medium in 
the style he wrote them in his life. The hand was held out and the 
initials shortly appeared. At a glance, the inquirer said, " Those are 
the initials, sure enough, but not written in the way my relative shaped 
them." When he returned home, he found that his assertion was 
erroneous, and that the initials as disclosed on Mr. Foster's hand were 
correct. Another investigator, so practical hitherto as to be regarded 
among his acquaintances as an embodiment of hard-headedness, re- 
ceived along with the name of his father a communication so character- 
istic as to utterly confound him, while the name of another departed 
relative appeared at full length on -.the medium's arm. Yet another in- 
cident of the many which have come to my knowledge, and can be 
readily substantiated. At Scott's Hotel one day a gentleman was 
offering to bet £50 that he would secretly write two names and en- 
close them in envelopes, sealed, and that Foster would be unable to 
divulge them. There were four others present, and one of them agreed 
to take up the challenge, so far as the cost of a sitting for the five ex- 
tended. The names were written and secured as proposed, and the 
party adjourned to the trysting spot. Before they had been in the 
room long, the names were proclaimed by the medium, and the chal- 
lenger yielded up his five guineas. I might go on multiplying instances 
of this description. A well-known Melbourne litterateur, a thorough- 
paced skeptic, received through Mr. Foster's hand the autograph sig- 
nature of a dead relative. Another gentleman — a native of Germany — 
was favored with several messages in a quaint German character. I 
would conclude the list with the narration of just one experience of my 
own. I had taken a friend to see Mr. Foster, and was sitting a little apart, 
watching, when loud raps came, apparently near me, and Mr. Foster, 
turning to me said, ' ' Here is an elderly lady, who announces herself as 
your mother. She will give her Christian and maiden name." And 
both were correctly written. Then, without stopping, he wrote another 
name and handed it to me, informing me it was that of an aunt of 
mine. Again correct. He then said if I cared to put a question I 
could. I took a slip of paper, and holding it in my hand on a card, 
carefully concealed from other eyes than my own, wrote, " Have you 

seen ? " giving the name of a cousin of mine, her son. I folded 

the paper and handed it towards him. As soon as he touched it, and 

before it left my hand, he rejoined, "She says she has seen , and 

what is more, he is here now. He is standing behind your chair." 
And after a moment's pause he added, ' ' He was killed. ' ' I said, " Yes. 



THE SALEM SEER. 



47 



How?" and was told to point privately to the letters of the alphabet 
on a card and the reply would be rapped out. I pointed and raps came 
at the letters DROW — at which moment Mr. Foster, who could not 
have seen what I was doing, put his hand suddenly on his side and ex- 
claimed, " What a pain ! He was killed by a fall. And I have a vision 
of water— a fall in water," the truth being that my cousin hurt his 
side in plunging into the St. George's Baths, Liverpool, and was 
drowned before it was suspected that he was doing more than indulg- 
ing in a prolonged dive. 

I am aware that many have visited Mr. Foster and failed to obtain 
evidence of anything more than clever guessing or conjuring — but the 
failures, so far as I can learn, have been few compared with the suc- 
cesses. As applicable to both, I may quote what Mr. Crooks says on 
this subject in his able article in the January number of the Quarterly 
Journal of Science : 

"There is a wide difference between the tricks of a professional con- 
jurer, surrounded by his apparatus, and aided by any number of con- 
cealed assistants and confederates, deceiving the senses by clever sleight- 
of-hand on his own platform, and the phenomena occurring in the 
presence of Mr. Home, which take place in the light, in a private room 
that almost up to the commencement of the seance has been occupied 
as a living room, and surrounded by private friends of my own, who not 
only will not countenance the slightest deception, but who are watch- 
ing, narrowly everything that takes place I have 

met with several cases of imposture, some very ingenious, others so 
palpable that no person who has witnessed the genuine phenomena 
could be taken in by them. An inquirer into the subject finding one 
of these cases at his first initiation is disgusted with what he detects at 
once to be an imposture, and he not unnaturally gives vent to his feel- 
ings, privately or in print, by a sweeping denunciation of the whole 
genus "medium." Again, with a thoroughly genuine medium, the 
first phenomena which are observed are generally slight movements of 
the table, and faint taps under the medium's hands or feet. These, of 
course, are quite easy to be imitated by the medium or any one at the 
table. If, as sometimes occurs nothing else takes place, the skeptical 
observer goes away with the firm impression that his superior acute- 
ness detected cheating on the part of the medium, who was conse- 
quently afraid to proceed with any more tricks in his presence. He, 
too, writes to the newspapers, exposing the whole imposture, and prob- 
ably indulges in moral sentiments about the sad spectacle of persons 
apparently intelligent, being taken in by imposture which he detected 
at once." 



I 4 8 THE SALEM SEER. 

Of one thing I am confident — no one who has enjoyed an ordinarily 
successful sitting with Mr. Foster can have left him under the impres- 
sion that he was merely an adroit conjuror. His powers extend far be- 
yond that metier. In what do they consist ? Admitting them to be ab- 
normal and occult, is his own testimony that he sees spirit forms and 
hears spirit voices to be passed as valueless, especially when we remem- 
ber that an English savant and F. R. S. declares he has had phantom 
forms presented before his eyes and felt phantom hands dissolving in his 
grasp ? If the prodigy be called brain-reading or clairvoyance, how 
shall we account for the writing on the skin, or the raps, these latter 
not peculiar to Mr. Foster, but heard in many a private parlor in this 
city ? I know that these things may, as Mr. Crooks points out, be 
imitated by jugglery ; I have read the books which affect to expose them 
as tricks; but I know also that the genuine and the delusive may be 
divided without much difficulty by a commonly shrewd investigator. 
At what conclusion are we to arrive then ? Is it true that death is but 
a change of existence, and that the after-life is a natural one, like, but 
superior to this life, subject to laws and limitations as is this, and 
capable under certain conditions, human and superhuman, of reveal- 
ing itself to the denizens of earth ? And as there are men and women, 
how or why we know not, who are gifted as poets, musicians, or 
painters, so may there be others, now and throughout the ages, gifted 
with organisms capable of being operated upon by spirit intelligence 
and force? Let who will dogmatize. I simply ask, "What is die 
testimony?" — Yours, &c, Investigator. 

Melbourne. May /. 



THE SALEM SEER. 149 



CHAPTER XV 

The people of Australia at first apparently took but 
little interest either in Spiritualism or Mr. Foster, but 
there was soon a decided interest in both. Mr. Foster 
was besieged by a multitude, all his time was engaged 
many days ahead, and he finally had to leave without 
giving seances to many who applied. The members 
of the Melbourne Club became very much interested, 
as did the mayor, the members of parliament, and the 
best society. Mr. Brown, a brewer, was especially 
kind to Mr. Foster, and placed his carnage at our 
disposal. He also gave Mr. Foster valuable assistance 
in collecting a variety of birds and animals, which Mr. 
Foster brought to America, and presented to the Essex 
Institute Museum, at his home in Salem, Mass. The 
collection embraced 201 specimens, including among 
the mammals, skins of the kangaroo, a dingo or native 
dog, an Australian bear, a Tasmanian devil, a kangaroo 
rat, a wambat and a duck-bill. The specimens of birds 
were mostly of the larger species, and those often seen 
in America. They included hawks, owls, ducks and 
an almost full set of parrots and pigeons. He also 
brought several articles of native workmanship, and a 
good collection of such fishes as were indigenous to the 
Australian waters. This collection is still on exhibition 
in Salem. 

Melbourne has many fine public buildings, the Library 
being an especially pleasant place to visit. The libra- 



1 50 THE SALE M SEER. 

rian, Marcus Clark, was a man of genius, modest and 
courteous. He was a writer, and apparently discour- 
aged that his writings were not more appreciated. He 
did much literary work, and had dramatized "The 
Scarlet Letter," which proved a failure. As we were 
about to sail from Melbourne, he presented us with a 
book, remarking that it might help to while away a few 
hours on our long voyage. On the title page we read 
" His Natural Life, by Marcus Clark." " Why, you are 
the author? " I said. He modestly replied, "Yes," — 
nothing more. One sultry morning after several days 
at sea I thought of Clark's book, and commenced reading 
it. I soon became enthused, and after reading it for an 
hour or two, I said to Mr. Foster, ' ' This is One of the most 
wonderful books of the nineteenth century. It is equal to 
any novel I ever read. I wish I could go back and thank 
Clark and encourage him, for he has written a great book, 
and it must be so acknowledged." Upon my return 
I loaned it to Mrs. Stephen Fiske, who extensively 
reviewed it for the St. Louis Republican, and afterwards 
used it for the foundation of her play, " Philip Heme." 
I also loaned the book to George H. Butler, who was at 
that time writing for the Washington press. I asked him 
what he thought of it. He said it would not be popular. 
I asked him why. He said it would not sell in good 
society, because the hero was a bastard. I said, "Did 
you not find it interesting? " "Interesting ! One night 
upon retiring I thought I would look it over for a few 
moments. I read it all night, and finished it just as 
the sun was rising ! " 

I then called on Harper Brothers, and told them that I 
thought I had brought a very valuable novel from Aus- 
tralia, and requested them to republish it, if after reading 
it they were of my opinion, and send a check through 



THE SALEM SEER. 151 

me to Marcus Clark. After keeping the book for three 
weeks they returned it, stating- that they were of my 
opinion that it was an interesting novel, but they strongly 
objected to re-publishing any works. Some months 
afterwards I saw advertised: "A Startling Novel, His 
Natural Life, by Marcus Clark, published by Harper 
Brothers. " I thought it very strange, and immediately 
called upon them for an explanation. They said they 
did not use my volume, that a copy had been sent them 
from London, with favorable criticisms from the London 
press, and also remembering my enthusiasm, they had 
concluded to publish it. They gave me a check for 
seventy-five dollars, which I forwarded to Mr. Clark. 
The check seemed small, but of course they were not 
legally bound to make any remittance. A few months 
afterwards we heard of the suicide of Marcus Clark. 

I take pleasure in mentioning another friend, who, 
although small of stature, was not deficient in mind. 
He was a very lovable character, kind and unselfish, 
endearing himself to every one who knew him. He 
might be termed the pet of Melbourne. His name was 
Willie Neal, and he was the son of Mr. Neal of the Aus- 
tralasian. God bless him ! 

As the time drew near for our vessel to sail, we were 
literally besieged by would-be investigators, many tele- 
grams coming from the interior requesting us to re- 
main over. Arriving at Sydney, to our surprise we 
found nearly one hundred people waiting for seances, 
as they had ascertained that Mr. Foster would be 
compelled to remain one day in Sydney. As we 
wished to devote some hours to sight-seeing, view the 
celebrated harbor, and visit Sydney's celebrated parks, 
we compromised the matter by giving sittings to twenty 
or thirty at one time. Every precaution was taken by 



152 THE SALEM SEER. 

the sitters, one person having all the questions written 
with invisible ink. But Mr. Foster was equal to all 
emergencies, and had a power which rarely failed him. 
He landed in Australia, a stranger, unknown. In two 
months he sailed away leaving many friends — known, 
written and talked about in every city and village in Aus- 
tralia. We sailed on the steamship City of Adelaide, 
May 9, 1874, and arrived in San Francisco June 16. Mr. 
Foster gave seances at the Grand Hotel for several weeks, 
after which we returned to New York City. I then re- 
turned to my former business, and only occasionally 
had the opportunity of seeing Mr. Foster afterwards. 

Mr. Foster married twice, his last wife's death having 
preceded his by several years. He was the father 
of a boy baby by his last wife. He named him 
Louis Gottschalk. In less than a year, however, his 
little dimples faded away, and his blue eyes closed, 
never to open again on earth. 

One summer day, in the early eighties, Mr. Foster and 
I took a long walk. He told me he was completely 
tired out, had pains in his head, and thought he had 
overworked, that in a few days he was going to his 
home in Salem, where he should remain quiet, and take 
a long and much needed rest. In a few weeks from 
that time, I heard of his severe illness, which proved 
to be an attack of brain fever. He became delirious, 
and after the fever left him, although health came back 
to his body, his mind remained diseased. By the phy- 
sician's advice, he was removed to the Danvers Insane 
Asylum, where he was thoroughly examined, and pro- 
nounced to have softening of the brain, and was 
thought to be incurable. I went to Salem, and accom- 
panied by Mr. Foster's father, Joshua L. Foster, we 
drove to Danvers and spent the day with Charles. He 



THE SALEM SEER, 1 53 

recognized me, and at first seemed as rational as ever, 
but would occasionally wander into some imaginary 
and ridiculous fancies. He commenced to tell me 
about a woman from Marblehead, who came over to 
Salem to throw hot water on him, and other like 
ridiculous thoughts seemed to flood his brain at times. 
A little common-sense talk would bring him back, and 
he would say that he knew it was foolish, and for half 
or three-quarters of an hour he would talk as rational 
and seem as sane as ever. He was harmless and 
gentle as a child, and in a few months was taken to 
his aunt's home in Salem, where he was tenderly 
cared for, and had the best nursing and medical treat- 
ment. 

My last visit to him was depressing. It was sad to 
see a man who had been gifted with almost super- 
human power so completely subjugated, weak and 
helpless. He seemed to have no desire beyond sitting 
in his rocking chair by the open window, the grapevines 
shading him from the sun. Willing to quietly sit there 
day after day, with a far-away look, and desiring to 
converse with no one. I said, "Charlie, how do you 
feel? Tell me exactly how you feel?" He replied, 
"Oh, George, I am so tired, so tired ! I need rest. I 
long for rest. I am simply worn out." I said, "Do 
you ever crave any wine or liquor? " He said, " No, I 
only care for water when I am thirsty. I have no desire 
to drink anything else." I said, "You used to be such 
an inveterate smoker. You seem never to smoke 
now." He said that desire had also left him, that he 
should never smoke again. I inquired about his power. 
He said he had lost all ambition, and did not care to 
exert himself. He was quite sure, however, if he were 
to sit at the table, that his old power would come back, 



I 5 4 THE SALEM SEER. 

but he had no desire to do so, as he felt that his work 
was done so far as this world was concerned. He 
only awaited the end, longing for perfect rest. His 
case was certainly very peculiar. Occasionally he 
would brighten up, and seemed to enjoy talking with 
me, but most of the time I am quite sure it fatigued 
him, and that he preferred being left entirely alone. 
He lingered in this condition on the border-land for 
many months, finally stepping over on Dec. 15, 1885, 
aged 52 years, 2 months, and 20 days. 

A friend writes : " Four years before his death he was 
stricken with brain fever and since that time the curtain 
of his life has been drawn and his once strong and 
brilliant mind was clouded forever. He has passed to 
that spirit land that he seemed to know so much of, 
and communed with so often. Loving hands per- 
formed every tender office, and smoothed his pillow till 
life's fitful fever ended. The drapery of his couch is 
wrapped about him, and he now rests in pleasant 
dreams. " 

"At 2 o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 17, 
an assemblage of friends which filled the house at 14 
Williams Street, where he died, convened to offer the 
last tokens of respect to the memory of the deceased. 
Among those present were Rev. Fielder Israel, ex- Alder- 
man John B. Bettis of Salem, Abbott Walker of Hamil- 
ton, John R. Bassett, Caleb Buffum (under whose 
direction the details of the funeral were arranged and 
carried out), Luther Colby of the Banner of Light, and 
others. The remains were disposed in a handsome 
casket of black walnut ; a large floral pillow of rare 
flowers, bearing the suggestive word 'Rest,' was be- 
stowed at the head of the casket ; the silver plate which 
bore his name and age was partly encircled by a beau- 



THE SALEM SEER. 1 55 

tiful floral cresent, and floral wreaths and other offerings 
were to be seen in profusion. 

"Rev. George S. Hosmer, Unitarian, read selections 
from the Scriptures, and followed them with an eloquent 
address. He also read the following letter from Rev. 
S. C. Beane, the former pastor of the Unitarian society. 

Salem, Dec. 16, 1885. 

Dear Miss Foster — I am sorry that I cannot, by my presence at his 
funeral, testify my appreciation of Charles II. Foster. He was a re- 
markable man — one of the most remarkable men of his generation. 
I stood with wonder before his great gifts. 

Whatever one's theory might be, in his presence the reality of a 
future life seemed to possess and command even the habitually indif- 
ferent. To thousands of thoughtful men and women on both sides of 
the Atlantic, including the most intelligent and the highest in social 
station, he has been as a voice from the eternal world. He used his 
gifts faithfully and sincerely, and had a reverence and felt an obliga- 
tion for them. 

In the many years that I have known him, I have felt that he was 
trying to the best of his will and might to make his wonderful powers 
give honest testimony to the great problem of human destiny. 

A more generous and kindly man I have never known. 

Every life has its darker side, but among our friend's imperfections 
there was not a hard heart or a selfish and niggard spirit. 

Let us be sure that the little glimpses he thought he had of the 
world of immortal souls is now become an open and satisfying vision. 

Always your friend, S. C. Beane. 

"W. J. Colville then delivered a beautiful and most 
impressive invocation which must have brought the 
minds of all who heard it into close communion with 
higher realms of spiritual being ; the invocation was 
followed by an address of singular power and pathos, 
in which many of the leading traits of Mr. Foster's 
character and many of his phases of mediumship were 
most appropriately referred to. In substance the speaker 
spoke as follows : The life of Charles H. Foster is a 
most valuable and interesting psychological study ; he 



I5 6 THE SALEM SEER. 

was an unusual man, as his gifts were unusual ; he 
was extremely sensitive to his every surrounding, and 
might fitly be compared to an yEolian harp, which re- 
sponds at once to every breeze. Such natures are pecul- 
iarly apt to suffer and go astray, while they are with 
equal readiness made responsive to the highest and 
holiest influences. They cannot be judged by ordinary 
standards ; they belong to the exception, not to the rule, 
and were they not thus singular they could not do the 
special work they were born to accomplish. 

"Charles H. Foster was a medium for such varied 
manifestations of spirit power that almost every one who 
went into his presence received something peculiarly ap- 
plicable to his own condition. His facility in describing 
spirit-forms and giving tests of spirit-identity was truly 
marvelous. He was lionized everywhere ; class dis- 
tinctions in England were all forgotten at the approach 
of that stupendous mystery of spirit-telegraph which 
made the learned nobleman bow in the presence of a 
power mightier than rank, wealth, and even death. 

"Mr. Foster's last hours were beautiful to remember ; 
a calm followed the tempest ; the skies cleared • the 
music of the spheres sounded in his ears ; spirit friends, 
kind and wise, clustered round his bed, and welcomed 
him with open arms into their fairer state of being. On 
entering the spirit-world with health, youth and men- 
tal vigor more than renewed, he commences a work 
beyond all that in his palmiest days could ever have 
been accomplished through him in the body. All the 
spirits who had been helped by communicating through 
him, all the mortals who had been blessed through his 
mediumship, threw upon him the healing balm of grate- 
ful thought ; and borne aloft on pinions of loving recog- 



THE SALEM SEER, 157 

nition, he passes to a home in comparison with which 
all earthly dwellings look poor indeed. 

' ; His interment occurred at Harmony Grove Ceme- 
tery, Salem, Mass." 

THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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